Bond Of Blood
by Ying-Fa-dono
Summary: After a horrible accident turns Sarah's life upside down, she turns to the Goblin King for help. He agrees, but only if she swears never to ask for his help again. But when Sarah's mom shows up out of the blue asking for Sarah's help, who can she trust?
1. A Simple Kind of Life

**Ying-Fa: Have you missed me, good messieurs? I have written you a Labyrinth fic (again)! Here I bring the first finished chapter! (I love that play) It is so nice to be back. Please read and be gentle!**

Sarah Williams sighed as she came home to her small flat on the outskirts of the city around eight o' clock and shut the door. It had been a very long and tiring day and she was eager to sink into a hot bath, change into her comfy clothes, eat fruit salad and read before going to bed. She'd been working at her new job for about six weeks, which was long enough for her to know, without the slightest doubt, that she hated it.

Sarah's father had set her up, working with for friend of his at a local diner. She'd liked the idea at first. She'd always been good at dealing with people and it would be enough to pay the bills until her book was complete and she found someone to publish the thing. Sadly, she'd been let down terribly. The other waitresses were mean, trashy girls and the fry cook was a slob who seemed to take a deep pleasure from the idea of girls working all around him. Her Dad's friend owned the place and promised her that things would get better once she'd adjusted. But she didn't want to adjust with those creepy people. Who would?

Once she'd reached nineteen, she'd left home for college, but her stepmother had only paid enough to send her to a second-rate college, where she'd gotten her Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. Since then, she'd been trying to get published. Her very, very rough draft was only three quarters of the way finished and she feared she may never get where she wanted with it.

After her bath, Sarah went into her bedroom and gratefully slipped into an old Seahawks sweatshirt, pajama bottoms, and her thickest, warmest pair of socks. It had taken awhile to wash the stink of cigarettes from her hair. All the other waitresses at the Fox n' Crow smoked religiously and spread the smell of tobacco onto anything they touched. With another sigh she looked over at the rough manuscript she'd made up so far. The title page read:

Crystal Dreams by Sarah Williams

Smiling at it, she went over into the kitchen. Despite what the title may have suggested, her story had nothing whatsoever to do with fantasy. It was about a girl who over came all of the struggles of the world and achieved her life-long dream of being an actress. In short, it was about the life that Sarah once considered having. Taking after her mother and pursuing a career in theater had been her intention when she was a teenager, but it flopped rather quickly when high school had ended. Writing seemed safer, in her opinion, than the life Hollywood had to offer.

Sarah opened up her fridge and started searching through its contents, looking for the leftover, strawberry Jell-O she wanted to use in her salad.

"Hm," she mumbled to herself. "That's odd. Where is it?"

"Look behind the milk on the second shelf, my lady," said a chivalrous voice from behind her.

"Oh okay," said Sarah, pushing the milk aside. "Ah, here it is! Thanks Didymus."

Sarah turned around and smiled when she saw a little fox sitting on her counter, a wrinkled dwarf leaning against the cupboard, and a large beast barely managing to squeeze into her small kitchen. "Could you pass me a couple of those bananas right next to you, Didymus?"

"Why certainly, gentle lady," said Didymus and he skewered a banana from a wooden bowl Sarah kept on the counter with a small sword, pried it free from the bunch, and gave it Sarah.

You're probably wondering why Sarah isn't at all surprised to see a trio of magical creatures trouped in her kitchen. Well, when Sarah was fifteen years old, she accidentally stumbled upon another world. She'd been babysitting her younger half-brother, Toby, and wished foolishly that he would be taken away by goblins. To her horror, the goblins _did_ come and take him away. Sarah had then followed them into a vast and extraordinary world called the Underground and had run across the great and mysterious Labyrinth to bring Toby back home.

Sarah's visit to the Underground may have been brief and very serious, for the goblins had intended to turn Toby into one of them, but that hadn't stopped her from making friends with some of the creatures that lived there. Hoggle, the dwarf, had been the first friend she'd made. He was quickly followed by Ludo, the monster, and Sir Didymus, the little fox knight. After thirteen, hard fought hours in the Labyrinth, Sarah had managed to save Toby and brought him back home. Since then, Sarah had always felt the need to call upon her friends from time to time. Every now and again in her life, for no reason at all, she needed them.

"Yer in yer P.J.'s already?" asked Hoggle, watching as Sarah peeled and cut her banana into little pieces. "Today couldn't have been that bad, could it?"

"Afraid so, Hoggle," said Sarah, gloomily. "That miserable fry cook, Ernie, seems to think that we'd make a good couple. Urg! He's just so gross."

"Shall I duel him, my lady?" Didymus offered, brandishing his tiny sword.

"I don't know," said Sarah, smiling at the little fox. "Have you ever slain an ogre before?"

"Oh, a few, my dear, a few," said Didymus, sounding quite serious. "They all deserved it, of course."

"I'm just kidding, Diddy," said Sarah, laughing. "I would never dare make anyone suffer your wrath. It's far too harsh for anyone in this world."

"He ain't really a problem, though, is he Sarah?" asked Hoggle. "I bet you could convince a few goblins to teach 'im a thing or two."

"No, it's really not a big deal," said Sarah, opening the fridge again and looking for a bunch of red grapes. "He just likes me because I'm the only girl there who smells decently and doesn't put on hooker make-up."

"Huh?" grunted Ludo, looking puzzled. "Hook . . . er?"

Sarah gasped. "Oh, never mind, Ludo! Never mind!"

Hoggle cackled. "Heh! Yer way too modest, Sarah. Yer the prettiest girl in the Aboveground and yer working for ogres? You can do much better, we all know it."

"Hoggle, I'm the _only_ girl in the Aboveground you know," said Sarah, now mixing whipped cream into her salad. "Besides if I asked the goblins to come here and do something for me, I'll be _he_ wouldn't like it very much."

Throughout the years since she visited the Underground, there was only one being she hadn't seen on a regular basis. In fact, she hadn't seen him in the entire ten years since she left. That was the Goblin King. He was the one who created the Labyrinth and governed over all the creatures that lived in it. But the Goblin King wasn't like any of the creatures in his realm. Unlike goblins, which were small, dark, and overly giggly creatures, the Goblin King was the closest thing there was to being human.

The Goblin King had been tall, well-sculpted, and perfectly proportioned. He had wild, spiky blond hair that fell gracefully onto his shoulders. His face was sharp and aristocratic with strange, mismatched eyes. The pupil of his left eye was more dilated than the other, yet both eyes possessed a lot of emotion. They sparkled with mischief when he was pleased, burned with fire when he was angry, and turned dark and smoky when he sang. Oh yes, the one thing that Sarah remembered most vividly about the Goblin King was his voice. It had been a velvety, beautiful baritone and carried all around the room.

"Oh," said Hoggle. "Yeah, yer probably right. He always gets peeved when they come up here."

"He doesn't punish anyone, does he?" Sarah asked, concerned.

"Nah," said Hoggle, waving one of his big hands. "He never says nothin', but you can always tell he's miffed when they get back."

"I'll bet," said Sarah, taking her now finished salad into the living room, plopping down on the couch, and starting to eat her salad. "He still won't let you guys into the Labyrinth, will he?"

"Nope," said Hoggle.

"No," grumbled Ludo.

"Fear not, good brethren," said Didymus. "Your thirteen years of banishment is almost complete."

"The very fact that they were banished is the problem, Diddy," sighed Sarah. "He shouldn't have done that at all. He's just angry because he lost."

Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus had been the ones who had helped Sarah the most in solving the Labyrinth and bringing Toby home. Once they got back, however, the Goblin King had banished Hoggle and Ludo from going inside the Labyrinth for thirteen years. He would have banished Didymus too, only Didymus was the guard of the Bog of Eternal Stench and it was almost impossible to find someone willing to take his job.

"Well, at least he didn't Bog us," said Hoggle. "To be honest, I'll take thirteen thousand years of banishment before I went back to that place."

"I wish there was something I could do to make it up to you guys though," said Sarah. "I feel bad that you can't go home."

"Hey, we can come here and visit you, can't we?" said Hoggle. "Besides, what are you gonna do? Go up to Jareth and start yellin' at him? That'll only get us in more trouble."

Sarah laughed humorlessly. "Don't be silly Hoggle," she said, looking at her salad without much of an appetite. "I'll never see him again." She stabbed at a grape with her fork and popped it into her mouth.

After she'd finished her snack, her friends decided to leave so that she could have some peace before going to bed.

"Goodbye Sarah."

"And remember, fair maiden, should you need us . . ."

"Yes, should you need us, for any reason at all . . ."

"I'll call you," said Sarah smiling warmly at them all. "I'll see you guys later." And in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

Sarah went into her bed room, slid under the covers, and grabbed her book from off her bedside table. It was about a young girl who sold herself as a slave to earn money for her dying father, but found favor in the eyes of a rich nobleman who eventually takes her to be his wife. Sarah read deep into the night, grinning as she read. This girl was positively silly, she thought. Doing anything you can for someone you love is one thing, but Sarah was certain she'd never offer herself like that. Around midnight, she put the book down, turned off the light, and fell back down onto her pillows. Her last thought before drifting off into a deep sleep was that she was glad she'd never be in a situation like that.

Sadly, she was mistaken.

**Ying-Fa: Eh? Eh? Any good? Interested? At all? Oh, please leave me your reviews. They're my Scooby Snacks!**

**Nagini-chan:(rolls eyes) Just don't you dare say "Scooby-dooby-doo" I'll bite you.**


	2. A Bad Day

**Ying-Fa: Hey guys! Back again. Okay, I've got about six chapters of this story prewritten so updates are gonna be a couple days apart. Please keep being my friends!**

Sarah went into work the next day, feeling rather put out. She had this awful sense of dread that told her today wasn't going to be a very good day. She went into the diner at four thirty to find that the other two waitresses that were working, Roxanne and Trish, were outside finishing up their cigarette break.

"Hello," said Sarah, putting on a brave smile.

"Oh, there she is," said Roxanne, taking a drag on her cigarette. "About time, girlie, I was starting to think I'd have to take the evening shift too. Well, now that you're finally here, I'm off." She threw what was left of her cigarette down onto the ground, crushed it with her shoe, and stalked off.

Sarah tried hard not to show her annoyance as passed her. Roxanne only worked two afternoon shifts a week and she still complained about being overworked. Sarah, on the other hand, worked four evening shifts and two afternoon shifts and she didn't complain once.

Trish looked Sarah up and down and grinned. Trish may not have had the best morals, but at least she was the nicest of the other waitresses at the diner. She had short platinum hair and sparkly, star shaped earrings. "How's it going?" she asked, putting out her own cigarette.

"Not so great," said Sarah. "I kinda woke up with a bad feeling, you know."

"Yeah, I know how that is," said Trish, nodding. "I get it all the time. It comes especially when you don't recognize the guy who's with you, or if he's related to the boss."

"Nice, Trish," said Sarah, rolling her eyes.

It was true that Sarah had had an uneasy feeling all day long. She'd found herself unable to write anymore of her story, because she'd felt so distracted. As she got ready for work and was brushing her hair, she'd looked into the mirror and thought about telling Hoggle and the others about her nerves. She'd decided against it though. If she started up a conversation with them, she might lose track of time and forget about work.

The Fox n' Crow wasn't the busiest diner in the town. They usually got an average of ten regulars and the occasional straggler. Its popularity had diminished greatly since the arrival of a brand new Starbucks had opened up not far away, but most of the loyal customers did still turn up. Sarah pinned her hair up and got her notepad ready in case somebody came in. As she went out into the front, Ernie the fry cook came out from the kitchen.

"Well, hello," he said, in a high-pitched voice that didn't suit him. Ernie was tall and very beefy with a bushel of beard sprouting on his chin and very little hair on top of his head. He had tiny, piggy eyes and meaty arms that hung at his sides like a gorilla. "Good to see the final serving wench has turned up for her shift. I told Roxanne not to worry."

"You know," snapped Sarah. "Most girls don't like being called a wench."

"I was only joking," said Ernie, with an ape-like guffaw. "No need to get defensive, Sarah. Did you get a haircut, by the way?"

"No," said Sarah, trying not to sneer.

"Really? It looks different. Oh, you dyed it, didn't you? That's it!"

"No, I haven't," said Sarah, through gritted teeth.

"Oh, um, then you got a weave? A touch up? A trim?"

"No, no, and again, no," said Sarah, walking away. "My hair is the same as it ever was, Ernie. Try paying a little more attention."

When she got back to the front of the diner, she heard Trish sniggering at what she'd said to Ernie. "Nice one, Sarah. He's no catch, that Ernie."

"Wouldn't stop you," said Sarah, grinning.

"Hey," said Trish, in mock offense. "Even I wouldn't stoop so low as Ernie. I prefer a man who isn't as desperate. Or who smells like B.O. all the time."

"Touché," said Sarah. "Showering is a very important thing when it comes to attracting someone."

Trish laughed. "You know, is there any way I can convince you to get something of a social life yourself?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, all you ever seem to do is work and then go straight home," said Trish. "Don't you ever go out? Dating? Clubbing? Anything at all?"

"That's not really my thing," said Sarah, hurriedly.

"Oh, please," said Trish. "You're twenty-five years old, you deserve to live a little."

"If living a little means living life from man to man, then no thank you," said Sarah. "I like to make my own way in the world."

Trish nodded understandingly. "I respect that. Still, there has to be someone you like. Someone you'd be interested in? Anyone?"

"Not really," said Sarah, dismissively.

"Sar, I don't believe you," said Trish. "This is why you attract guys like Ernie. Desperate guys seek out lonely girls. They think it's their best shot."

"That's not true," said Sarah. "And I'm not lonely."

"Okay then," said Trish. "Name the last guy you've dated for longer than a week and when you dated him."

Sarah hesitated to answer. " . . . um . . . well . . . there was this guy . . . last month, I think . . . and . . ."

Trish cut her off. "Look, honey, don't lie okay? You're bad at it."

Sarah huffed and felt herself blush. "Okay, okay! I . . . I haven't dated anyone . . . for that long . . . ever."

"_Ever?!_" gasped Trish. "Sweetie, you are one depraved little girl."

"I'm not depraved!" snapped Sarah. "I just like things the way they are. Besides, I . . . well, all of the boys I've ever known are . . . well . . . they're boys."

"Oh," said Trish, nodding. "I get it. You like men, not boys."

"Sorta," mumbled Sarah.

"Hm," said Trish. "That sounds kinda like there's a story behind it. Come on, kiddo, tell me what's up."

"Nothing's up," said Sarah. "I just haven't ever found happiness with a guy, that's all."

Fortunately, customers showed up at that moment and she wasn't able to hear Trish's snide comment. But it was the truth. Sarah was extremely uncomfortable when it came to dating. The boys who had all asked her out had all seemed to have something wrong with them. Even if it was just something small, she still found a reason for not going out with them for too long. As she busted tables, she tried to think about what had been wrong with each guy who had tried to ask her out.

In senior year, there had been Jerry Cummings, who had asked her to the movies with him. She'd gone with him and he'd seemed nice, but he'd grabbed her arm and tried to kiss her in his car after driving her home, so she'd called it off. It wasn't really the kissing that had bothered her, it was really the fact that he'd outright seized her. He never called her back.

Then there was Billy Hunt, the son of one of Irene's college friends. He'd asked her out for dinner once and had actually gotten a second date out of her before she broke it off. The problem with him was that he had tried to make her pay both times they'd gone out to eat. That had been quite the turn off.

After that was Marlon Finke, but he had had cold eyes, so she rejected him. Then there was Seth Masters, but he hated dogs. Then there was Phil Andrews, and he had been really clingy, which was highly annoying. No matter who they were or how nice they seemed, there was always something wrong with the man who had attempted to court her.

If Sarah was honest with herself, a large part of the problem was that she kept comparing each boy to one person in particular, which was wrong in itself. Why should she care if the man she dated was anything like the Goblin King? But it was hard not to. Jareth had been the very personage of the one she'd always imagined herself with in her dreams. But he had been the villain and that had ruined everything.

What was more, she knew that she would never again see the Goblin King. It was a fact that she'd come to realize, but it still really bothered her. After all these years of keeping the link between herself and the Underground alive, she'd gotten to see anyone and everyone she wanted with the one exception of Jareth. He had never come to her, and she had never called for him. Sarah was sure that even if she did bother to call him, he wouldn't want to see her. The very last time she saw him was when he fell before her after she'd told him that he had no power over her. That didn't seem to be the way to end things between them. She sometimes felt that she ought to have said something to him in all these years since, but her nerves always shorted out before she'd managed to make up her mind.

There were times, however, when she was almost sure that she felt him nearby. One time, in high school, she'd been cornered by the class player who had tried to put the moves on her. Try as she might, she couldn't make him go away. It was only when the locker he'd been leaning against opened unexpectedly and slammed down on his hand did he finally leave her alone so as to find the school nurse. Sarah could never be sure, but she could have sworn she saw a slight flash of glitter shine around the locker before it had crushed the boy's knuckles.

Another time was when she was at a job interview for a fast food place. The boss at that job had been a fat, bald, ugly man who had leered almost greedily at her as his perverted eyes glanced from her to her resume. Sarah was just hoping that he wouldn't take her on after all, that she'd much rather get a job somewhere else, did the man stand up from his chair, slip on something on the floor, and almost cracked his head open. Strangely enough, he'd blamed her for not trying to catch him and told her to leave. Sarah never saw what he'd tripped on, but as she left she thought he'd heard him say, "How did this peach get here anyway!?"

Finally, just a few weeks before she was about to move out of her father's house to leave for school, did she have the most vivid dream about the Goblin King that, to this day, she still didn't know what to think of it. She had contracted a high fever and it wasn't going away. Sarah remained in bed for five days with the fever only getting worse as time went on. Finally, on the fifth night, just as Irene has said that if the fever didn't break by morning they'd send her to the hospital, did it happen. Sarah had been sleeping poorly. Restless from being in bed all day but drained by the fever, she'd drifted in and out of consciousness.

Then, upon falling back into her trouble sleep, she opened her eyes to see the Goblin King himself kneeling next to her bed beside her. Though it had been dark, she could see his face. It was lined with what appeared to be worry, one of his gloved hands was gently stroking her hot forehead, whipping the sweat off her brow. She tried to speak to him, but he'd kindly motioned for her to remain quiet as his hand moved from her forehead to her cheek, his finger stroking her there soothingly. She'd suddenly felt so overcome with peace that she allowed herself to close her eyes and sink into darkness, Jareth's voice singing softly in her ear. The next morning, she'd woken up completely refreshed, her fever finally gone.

"Hey, lady! Are you gonna take our order here or what?"

Sarah snapped back to reality. A pair of regulars were snapping at her from the other end of the room. She quickly went over and asked them what they wanted. They ordered cheeseburgers and beer, which she wrote down on her notes. She then delivered the order to Ernie, who immediately worked on the food.

She tried to focus on her job again, trying to forget the Goblin King. The truth was that she'd asked her friends and other goblins about the locker incident and the icky boss man taking a fall. They had all told her that the Goblin King hadn't left the castle at the time of either incident, but that none of them were responsible either. And by now, all this time later, she was now pretty sure that her dream of the Goblin King coming to her while she was sick had been . . . well . . . a dream. Nothing more.

The rest of the day was exhausting. The customers kept her on her feet, Trish kept bugging her about going clubbing with her this weekend, and Ernie kept trying to get a decent look at her backside until closing time finally arrived. Sarah hurried out before either Ernie or Trish could sweet talk her into helping them close up, which was Trish's job, not hers. Sarah quickly climbed into her decrepit old Ford, but not before she dropped her purse onto the ground and spilled the contents all over the ground.

"Oh, great," she muttered angrily. She scrambled around, gathering all of the possessions, while the alarm on her car buzzed irritably at her. "I'm coming," she snapped at it. She had just managed to cram a whole lot of it back into her bag when . . .

"Excuse me, madam, I believe you dropped this."

Sarah's head shot upward, startled. A man was standing next to her car, a tube of Chap Stick in his hand. He had a pale, thin face with deep chocolate eyes and dark hair that was slicked back onto his head. He was wearing a dark suit with a crimson scarf hanging off his shoulders, though it wasn't even very cold out. A very faint goatee was starting to form all around his mouth and was twisted upward as he grinned enigmatically at her.

"Oh," said Sarah, slightly startled, taking the Chap Stick from him. "Thank you."

"My pleasure," he replied. He had a sophisticated, witty voice that was laced with a British accent. If Sarah had only heard his voice and not seen his face, she would have expected him to be a certain somebody else. "Do take care of yourself, won't you darling?"

Sarah tensed somewhat by being called 'darling' by a complete stranger, but she did her best not to let it show. "You too," she said, with false pleasantness. She slammed her car door and started the engine.

Sarah arrived back at home and collapsed onto her couch, exhausted. She was in a state to simply fall asleep there, but she couldn't help but notice the small, orange light on her phone was flashing at her. Somebody had left her a message.

**Ying-Fa: And that's it. I hope you like it. Next chapters a doozy, so I hope you people enjoy the peace while it lasts.**

**Nagini-chan: Please leave your reviews. Thank you very much, friends.**


	3. An Accident

**Ying-Fa: I love reviews, I love reviews, I love 'em! And since I got so many, here's the next chapter. This one was hard to write. You'll find out why soon enough, I'm sure.**

Sarah had ignored the phone for as long as she could. She knew it was probably Irene telling her to come over and help her with housework, or perhaps Roxanne or another of the girls at work calling to ask her to take over her shift. Whichever it was, she wasn't in the mood for it. She went and took another comforting shower first.

As she came out of the bathroom, drying her hair, she noticed a small goblin was staring at her phone, blinking every time the light flashed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"The thingy was making a weird sound and then the mysterious light came on," it told her. "Wrackspurt's trying to figure out the connection between the sound and the mysterious light."

"It was just me getting a phone call," Sarah explained. "The light comes on when somebody leaves a message recorded on the phone."

It was clear that not a word of this reached Wrackspurt. Sarah knew this goblin fairly well. He had a great fascination with 'Aboveground gadgetry' as he liked to call it. He would sneak into her house when she was asleep or at work and try and play with several household appliances.

The first time Sarah had met him, he was sitting in the microwave, assuming it was some kind of tanning bed. Another time, she'd caught him tumbling around and around in the dryer. When she let him out, he'd asked her why this ride had to be so painful and insisted that she try lining the walls with pillows so that it would be more enjoyable. Most recently, he'd figured out how to turn on the television and Sarah had come home just in time to prevent him from smashing it with a chair, with the intent of freeing Kermit and Ms. Piggy from their strange, box-shaped prison.

"Recorded?" said Wrackspurt.

"Yes," said Sarah irritably. "Now, go home Wrackspurt. I'm not feeling up trying to save you from the garbage disposal again."

"Alright," said the goblin, tearing its eyes away from the phone reluctantly. "I'll never understand why humans have death traps where they wash their clothes."

"You don't wash clothes in the sink," Sarah said, her patience falling short. "You wash dishes in the sink. Now, go home."  
"Yes, yes, yes," said Wrackspurt grudgingly, and he vanished in an instant.

Sarah sighed and pressed the message button on the phone, only half listening as she dried her hair.

"**You have 3 new messages**," said the voice on the machine. "**First message: sent today at 10:14 AM. BEEP!**"

"**Hi, Sarah!**" Toby's voice was altered somewhat by the machine, but she could still make out his cheery tone. "**You're coming to my play tomorrow, right? I just want you to know you don't have to. Mrs. Horne wrote it and Jimmy says that it sucks big time. Well, I might see you there, or I might not. Bye. BEEP!**"

Sarah smiled to herself. Toby's fifth grade teacher had ambitiously written a play for her students to perform for a Spring Festival that the students put on every year. Toby had a small part with only seven lines (he'd counted) and kept insisting that Sarah didn't have to come see him if she didn't want to. This was just his way of saying that he really, really wanted her to come see him. And of course she would.

"**Second message**," said the phone. "**Sent today at 3:33 PM. BEEP!**"

"**Hey, Sarah, this is Mel**," said the voice of another of the Fox n' Crow waitresses. "**I was just going to ask you if you could pretty, pretty please cover my shift for me tomorrow. Don't worry, I swear I'm gonna call Roxanne and Trish to see if they can do it instead. I just have a club event I really need to take part in and if you could cover for me that would be great. Please, oh please, call me back with good news, okay? You're a doll! BEEP!**"

Sarah groaned. Mel was the one waitress she almost never saw working at the Fox n' Crow because she was always calling people to have them work for her. She sometimes wondered if the woman even existed. Still, she would chew broken glass before missing Toby's play just so she can take Melanie's place tomorrow.

"**Third message,**" said the phone. "**Sent today at 5:45 PM. BEEP!**"

"**Miss Williams.**"

Sarah stared. On the line was an official sounding voice that she didn't know. Suddenly interested she leaned forward so she could hear the messaged clearly, throwing her towel aside.

"**This is Officer Polis, from the Jamestown police. We came to your house but you weren't at home. We've got your number from your stepmother.**

"**She, your father, and your half brother have been in a car accident.**"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah had no idea just how long it took her to get from her house to the hospital where her family were being kept. It felt like an eternity, but it only could have been half an hour or forty-five minutes at most. She stormed into the hospital and grabbed the attention of the first doctor she saw.

"Excuse me," she asked, breathlessly. "My name is Sarah Williams, my family was brought here this evening, and they were in an accident."

The doctor looked through several papers on his clipboard. "Oh, yes," he said, in a voice that was impossibly calm for a time like this. "They're up on the next floor. Here, I'll take you to them."

The doctor marched her through the hospital to find her family. Sarah passed several other people along the way. There was a child crying on his mother's lap, holding his arm out for another doctor to look at. Several doctors were pushing a man away on a stretcher, speaking hastily and saying complex, medical things that she couldn't understand. Was her family now like that man? Surrounded by doctors, unconscious and bleeding?

The doctor finally took her to another ward in the hospital. At the end of the hall she saw a couple of police officers and . . .

"Irene!" Sarah cried out, running over toward her stepmother.

Irene looked up. "Sarah! Oh thank heavens!"

Sarah ran up and embraced her stepmother. It had to be the second or third time they'd ever embraced, but right now Sarah was just so glad to see her alive that she didn't even care about their differences anymore. When they broke apart, Sarah saw that Irene's wrist was in a splint and that there was a somewhat bloody bandage around her head.

"Irene, what happened?" Sarah demanded. "Where's Daddy? Where's Toby?"

"It's okay, Miss Williams," said one of the police officers. "They're here."

"What happened?" Sarah asked, more urgently.

"They were hit by another car," said the second officer. "The driver fell asleep at the wheel and ran into the driver's side of their car."

Sarah felt a pang of panic. Her father was usually the driver, and Toby always sat right behind him. If Irene had been in the passenger seat and she looked fairly alright, what did that mean for the others? At that moment, another doctor came over toward Irene.

"Excuse me, officers," he said. "I need a look at my patient." The officers nodded and turned to leave. The doctor then turned toward Sarah. "Are you family?" he asked.

"She's my husband's daughter," said Irene. Through her worry and fear, Sarah felt a pang of annoyance. Even now, during this frightening and troubled time, Irene didn't hesitate to let the world know they weren't related.

"Your husband just regained consciousness," the doctor said, as he carefully removed the bandage around Irene's head and examined the stitched up cut underneath. "He's sustained a minor head injury, a mild case of whiplash, and a few broken ribs, but it looks like he's gonna be okay."

"And Toby? Toby!?" Sarah asked, horrified to know the answer.

The doctor hesitated a few more seconds, and then took a deep breath before he addressed the two women. "He's . . . suffered the worst amount of damage. The other car hit right where he was sitting. There were some glass fragments from the window that had become embedded in his skin, but we were able to remove them. His left arm is . . . broken in two places and he's sustained a . . . major head injury."

Sarah's stomach turned to rot at that. "H-how is he?" she asked timidly.

"He's . . . stable," said the doctor. "But there's some internal bleeding. We're doing everything in our power to stop the bleeding but his head injury may put him into a coma. And if the bleeding doesn't stop . . . he might not make it."

Sarah turned to Irene, who looked thunderstruck. "M-m-make it?" she stammered. "But . . . but . . . he's only a little boy!"

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Williams," said the doctor, earnestly. "But I promise you we are doing _absolutely everything_ we can for Toby right now. We'll just have to wait and see."

Sarah and Irene just sat there, stunned and terrified for Toby. Trying to think of something else to say that would take her mind of the terror, Sarah asked, in a voice that didn't at all sound like her own. "Wh-what about the other driver? The one who fell asleep at the wheel?"

The doctor hesitated. "He died on impact of the collision," he said, flatly. "His . . . wife and daughters are being alerted right now." And with that, he excused himself and walked away.

This new information made Sarah feel, if possible, even worse. Sarah analyzed the entire situation. A man, a married father, had simply fallen asleep while driving and slammed into the car that had carried two adults and a child. The man's car had rammed right into where the innocent boy was sitting and now it sounded like he was on the brink of life and death. The two adults were injured, but were going to be alright, if not forever burdened with the death of their son, and that poor man, who had made such a simple, innocent mistake, was gone forever.

Sarah suddenly felt sick. She swayed slightly where she stood and grabbed onto the wall for support. She heard Irene talking to her, but couldn't make out words. All was noise and dizziness. Finally a nurse came by and made Sarah sit down in a chair by the wall. She handed Sarah a small, paper cup of water and told her to take deep, calming breaths. She did so, sipping the water as she did. But as calmness came, so did the horrible realization of the situation. Unable to stop tears from forming inside her eyes and feeling nausea start to take hold of her, she stormed away and into the nearest restroom she could find.

She wasn't able to make it into a stall before she felt the vomit rise up in her throat. She leaned over the sink and let loose. When she'd finished, she felt ashamed and disgusted with herself. She turned on the sink and rinsed the puke down the drain as best she could, eyes streaming with tears and sobs bursting from her throat.

Toby was going to die, she realized. Toby was really going to die. Ten years old and his life was already over. How horrible. Only a blink of an eye and he was gone. She remembered the message he'd left for her on her machine. He'd left it earlier today. How? He'd sounded so cheerful. It was impossible to believe that he had been happy, safe, and unhurt mere _hours_ ago. And now he was dying.

Sarah collapsed again. She fell to her knees, her hands grasping the sink in support, and cried. For how long, she had no idea.

"Sarah? Sarah, what's wrong?"

Sarah lifted her head. Hoggle's worried face was peering at her through the mirror. Sarah turned sharply around her, but saw that she was, indeed, still alone in the bathroom. She turned back to Hoggle's reflection and forced back her tears.

"I-it's T-T-Toby," she managed. "H-he's b-been in an a-a-accid-d-dent. Hoggle they think . . . they th-th-think he's g-g-g-gonna d-die."

"Die!?" gasped Hoggle. "The little squirt? That's . . . that absolutely awful. What happened? Can ya say?"

Sarah did her best to explain to Hoggle what had happened. He listened with rapt attention, never interrupting with questions. When she'd finished, Sarah was done. She managed to stand again and dried her face as best she could.

"I . . . I don't knows what to say," said Hoggle, looking down at his stubbly feet. "I wish I could help Sarah, I really wish I could."

"Isn't there some way?" she choked out, her voice not quite recovered from her tears. "Any kind of magic? Anything from there I can use here?"

Hoggle shook his head. "Nothin'. Nothin' I knows anyway. The only possible person who might know something like that would probably be Jareth, but . . ."

Sarah started. "The Goblin King knows a way to save Toby?"

Hoggle suddenly looked startled. "I-I didn't say that!" he insisted.

"But you said he might know," Sarah said, sharply.

"No," said Hoggle, waving his hands. "Well . . . maybe . . . I don't know. But, seriously, Sarah, I'd . . ."

It was too late. Sarah covered her ears, braced herself for whatever would come next and cried out. "I wish I was at the Castle Beyond the Goblin City right now!"

"Sarah, wait, no! I'd . . ." Hoggle tried, but Sarah vanished from before his eyes. "Oh SHOOT!" he bellowed, banging his fists. "There's another thirteen years o' banishment for me . . . that is if he doesn't decide to bog me first!"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah felt the atmosphere around her change. She was no longer in the hospital bathroom anymore. She was no longer in the same _world_ anymore. All around her she heard familiar giggle and grunts and gibbering from creatures she'd grown to know and some she'd befriended. She opened her eyes. She was in the Goblin King's throne room, surrounded by squabbling goblins.

"Well, well, well," said a voice that Sarah was sure she'd never hear again. "Isn't _this _a most unexpected surprise?"

Sarah carefully raised her eyes to look at the man standing before her.

"It's been some time . . . Sarah."

Sarah took a deep breath and nodded. "Goblin King," she whispered.

**Ying-Fa: Dun, dadundun, DUN! Please keep loving me! Okay, tell me what's going on in your noggins and I'll be back soon!**


	4. A Bargain

**Ying-Fa: (sniff) So . . . many . . . reviews. So touched . . . gonna cry . . . WHAAAA!**

**Nagini-chan: Only Fanfiction can bring out this side of her. Oh well. Here's the next chapter.**

**Ying-Fa: Hey, that's my line!**

Sarah stared at the Goblin King, keeping any fear or apprehension out of her face. He hadn't changed at all since their last encounter. His blond hair was still wild as ever, shoulder length and beautiful. He wore those scandalous gray breeches along with a wine-colored poet's shirt, open at the front with billowing sleeves and silken cuffs. The golden amulet around his neck sparkled just underneath the shirt against his chest. The look was completed by the jet black leather of his gloves, waistcoat, and pointed boots.

Sarah saw his mismatched eyes drink in her appearance with particular criticism. It was then that Sarah realized that she'd brought herself here right after she'd been sick and had cried a lot, and that had been after she'd left her house in a particular hurry, without taking much care in her appearance. She realized now that she must look pretty bad. Without a doubt he'd notice.

"I . . . I need to speak to you," said Sarah, sounding braver than she felt.

Jareth smiled in an almost mocking way. "Really?" he said. "After ten years of cavorting with my goblins and basking in your oh so _glorious_ victory, you seem to have decided that you own this place, is that it? And now you smartly invite yourself into _my_ throne room, simply to _talk_ with me? My, you've certainly grown bold during this last decade, haven't you, Sarah?"

Sarah's courage wavered for a moment, but she bossed it back into place quickly. "I don't own _anything_," she snapped, staring right back into those fierce eyes. "I've just come to . . . to . . ."

She hated to falter in front of him, but she just couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence. "I've come to ask you for a favor." How could she possibly just turn up out of the blue after ten years, after ending things with him like _that_ and then demand that he help her? He'd been right. She was bold. Bold and unbelievably stupid.

"To?" prompted Jareth. "Come, come, we haven't got all day."

"He's in a _mood_ today," hissed one of the watching goblins.

"A _mood_," his companion murmured in agreement. Unfortunately, Jareth heard them.

"Yes, I am," he snapped, spinning around to glare at them. "I'm in a mood to send the next person who utters one more word into the Bog of Eternal Stench before they even realize what's happened to them!"

"Shutting up!" the goblins cried and they retreated.

"Leave them alone," said Sarah, defiantly. "They're not doing anything."

Anger flashed dangerously in Jareth's eyes. Sarah suddenly wished that she'd shut up too. She'd come here hoping he'd help her and the very worst thing she could do right now was make him angry.

"Just what are you here for again?" hissed Jareth.

"I was just . . ." Sarah took a deep breath. "I wanted to . . . to ask you for . . . something."

"Ask me for something?" said Jareth, his anger suddenly replaced by a careful curiosity. "Just what for exactly?"

"I . . . I need something for . . . for Toby," Sarah managed. Up until now she'd forced herself not to dwell on Toby's current predicament and now she had to focus on Jareth, keeping her eyes dry through sheer willpower. "He's . . . he got hurt . . . and I need . . . something to help him."

Jareth was eyeing her critically again. She sort of wished he'd stop. His gaze made her feel like she was on stage and she couldn't remember her lines. Finally, he took his eyes off her, turned around and sat back down in his throne, though he didn't swing his leg over the armrest like he usually did.

"You say he's been hurt, has he?" drawled Jareth. "How so?"

"There was an . . . an accident," said Sarah, still willing herself not to show Jareth a single sign of weakness. "He's hurt bad. Really . . . very badly."

Jareth was silent for a moment, and then spoke again. "And why turn to me? Surely there are proper medics who can treat him in your own world."

"Well, yes," said Sarah. "They're doing the best they can but . . . he hurt his head and they're afraid he's gonna slip into a coma and . . . he b-bleeding internally and . . . they don't think he'll . . . pull through."

Sarah didn't dare look back up at Jareth. She kept her gaze low at the foot of the throne, hiding her tears as best she could.

"Sounds to me like you should have taken better care of him," Jareth's voice said coldly. Sarah winced, expecting the barb, but didn't show it. "You did, after all, work _so very hard_ to get him back, didn't you?"

"Look," Sarah said, tearing her gaze from the floor to look back up at him. "I wouldn't be here if I had any other option. I wouldn't be asking this of you, but I don't know what else to do. They say that he's gonna die; he might even be dying right now. You're the only one here with the power to do something about it. You're the only one I know who has a chance at saving him. Please," Sarah was beside herself at this point. Tears falling down her face and her back hunching over in a kind of half bow. "Please, I . . . I can't let him die. He can't die, he just can't. You spent thirteen hours with him. You know how wonderful and special he is. He can't be allowed to die! Please . . . please . . ."

Sarah couldn't stand any longer. She fell to her knees, crying her eyes out. Somewhere through her sorrow, she felt ridiculous to be kneeling like a whimpering dog at the Goblin King's feet, but right now there was little she could do about it. The terror at losing Toby was just too great . . . too much . . .

Hating herself for what she was about to do, she braced herself and said, "Please . . . please I'll . . . I'll do anything. Anything that you want. I'll do whatever you want met to do just . . . please . . . please save him."

She regretted the words the instant she said them. In ten whole years, she'd been so very careful with what she said to goblins and even to her friends. She worded things so carefully so as to not invoke the magic that had gotten Toby wished away so long ago. She had even used her words coming here now carefully. Rather than wishing to be taken away to the castle, she simply wished she was _at_ the castle. She was here temporarily, as a kind of visitor, like she was when she first came here. But now she had offered to do anything he asked of her. Knowing him, he would take advantage of that in the most horrific ways possible. Bracing herself for whatever he said next, Sarah dared not look up at him but waited for him to speak. What would he make her do?

Finally, after an eternity, Jareth spoke.

"Don't . . . cry," he growled.

Sarah started. She looked up and saw that he wasn't looking directly at her. His eyes were downcast, scowling, and he had a hand pressed against his mouth as if to hide the expression that was twisted upon it.

"Wh-what?" Sarah asked.

"I . . . said . . . don't . . . cry," Jareth snarled through gritted teeth.

Sarah quickly gathered herself and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. There was a very long, almost awkward pause. Sarah tried to read Jareth's expression and movements. He looked seriously thoughtful and his eyes were darting back and forth, not as if he was looking at anything in particular, but as if he was trying to talk himself into something.

After awhile, Jareth looked back at her. "I'm not going to lie and tell you that I'm much of a healer Sarah," he said. "Curing really isn't my strong point."

"But," Sarah choked, feeling panic starting up. "Isn't . . . isn't there anything? Any kind of magic that could . . . I don't know . . . do _anything_ for him?"

Again, Jareth was silent for awhile after that question, clearly thinking very hard. "There . . . might be," he said curtly. Sarah's heart leapt. "There is a . . . particular substance that I know of that can . . . save those whose lives are in peril."

"Really?" Sarah said, hardly daring to believe. But, she reminded herself, what would he ask in return?

"Yes," said Jareth. "Follow me, Sarah."

Jareth rose from his throne and started to head toward the steps that lead to the Escher room. Sarah turned to look at the surrounding goblins, who nodded encouragingly, and she turned and followed Jareth. But as they reached the top of the stairs, she was surprised to see the Escher room was not there. It looked as if someone had taken it and straightened it out to make sense. There were still many stairways, but all of them went the right way and seemed to lead off to different parts of the castle.

"What happened to . . .?" Sarah began, but her voice trailed off.

Jareth chuckled. "I can change this castle to however I like, Sarah," he said. "We've no need for a maze of stairs when I'm trying to lead you somewhere."

"Oh, I see," said Sarah, trying to sound smart, but knowing she was falling short.

Jareth lead her up several stone stairs and then through a tapestry that lead into a hallway. Sarah kept as close to him as her nervousness would allow. If he was really going to help her, she didn't want to lose track of him. But there had to be a price for what he was offering her. What could it be?

After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a large, black and gold door. It had a strange metallic device on it that Sarah assumed was a lock. The Goblin King fitted his hand into a large round hole in the strange lock, twisted something inside, and it opened with a loud creaking sound. Jareth then beckoned Sarah to follow him inside and she obliged.

Inside was what could only have been a kind of treasury. All along the walls were shelves upon shelves of the strangest, yet most beautiful jewels and treasures Sarah had ever seen. There were heaps of gold and silver, sculptures and jewelry, and all sorts of strange things she didn't even know.

"Wait here," said Jareth. "Look all you like, but refrain from touching."

"O-okay," said Sarah, unevenly. It was all just so beautiful, it was hard to keep still. Jareth turned and disappeared into the depths of the large room. Sarah stared around at the twinkling treasures. It had never occurred to her that the Goblin King would have treasures like this. Sarah, fascinated, examined a gold statute that was covered completely in jewels of black, red, and silver. There was a staff made entirely out of blue crystal, a gleaming scarlet stone that sat surrounded in a glass ball, an a large, tree shaped pendant the size of her entire hand resting on a display case along the wall.

Sarah was just examining a choker that had to be made of over a thousand minuscule diamonds, when something out of place caught her eye. Resting on a table that featured an array of goblets, some gold, some pewter, and some full of different colored fire, was a small, very old looking wooden box. It reminded Sarah of a wooden box her grandmother once had where she kept her earrings. Where there perhaps earrings in there as well?

Suddenly uninterested in everything else in the room, Sarah approached the small box. It looked battered and rough and particularly shabby compared to the wondrous treasures stashed everywhere else in the room. Sarah's hand outstretched to open it, but then Jareth's request at not touching anything came back into her mind. She hesitated and looked around. There was no sign of the Goblin King. Odds were he wouldn't be back for awhile. Surely it wouldn't hurt to take just one look inside this box. It wasn't like she was going to steal what was inside or anything. She just wanted a look, which was all. It couldn't be any different than any of these other things, could it?

Sarah had her hand on the lid and had just barely lifted it when another hand, a large gloved one, came down upon hers, causing the lid to slam shut again. Sarah looked up and gasped as she looked up into the eyes of a very cross looking Goblin King.

"S-sorry," said Sarah, pulling her hand away from his, ignoring the slight jolt she'd received at his touch.

"Hm," grunted Jareth, eyeing her almost suspiciously. Then he held up a small, crystal bottle which was full of a strange substance. It was white and kind of shimmery and it swirled like clouds along the crystal interior of the bottle.

"Is that . . . what Toby needs?" Sarah asked, breathlessly.

"This ought to do it, I think," said Jareth. "This substance is particularly powerful. If he drinks this, it ought to cure any interior and exterior injuries he has. It can also restore his will to survive. I know it's only a small amount, but I doubt he'll need any more than this, seeing as he's so young."

"Okay," said Sarah, reaching for the bottle. But Jareth didn't give it to her.

"Now Sarah," he said, sternly. "There are a few things we need to get straight before I give this to you."

_Uh oh,_ Sarah thought. _Here it comes._

"Firstly," said Jareth. "You are to tell no one, _no one_, about this substance. Not your parents, not even your little _friends_. You are to give it to him at a time when there is nobody watching. This is a very powerful bit of magic and you can understand the complications that would arise if anyone knew you had it."

"I won't say anything," Sarah swore. "Who'd believe me if I did?"

"Secondly," said Jareth. "You aren't come back here anymore. You may continue to visit with my subjects in your world, but don't come back to the Underground again. Understand?"

This second condition stung a bit, but she nodded nevertheless. He made it sound like there was something wrong with her and he didn't want her anywhere near the Labyrinth anymore. True, she'd never exactly planned to come back, but to hear him say he didn't want her there wasn't exactly nice to hear. But, of course, there was also their history . . .

"Lastly," said Jareth. "You are never, and I do mean never, to ask me for this substance again. I don't care if every single person you've ever known and loved is dying all at once. Don't ever ask me for this again, Sarah. Ever."

This last one puzzled her. Why wasn't she allowed to ask for the potion again? Was it rare or hard to make? True, Jareth seemed to keep it in a room filled with thousands of wondrous treasures, so it must be very valuable. It seemed to be taking him a great deal to give her this tiny bit right now. But then why was he giving it to her at all?

"Sarah," said Jareth, impatiently.

"Oh all right," said Sarah. "I'll never ask for it again. You don't have to worry about it."

Jareth stared at her straight in the eye. "I can't specify just how very serious I am about this Sarah," he breathed. "This isn't something I can just hand out. Don't tell anyone about this, don't ask for more, and don't keep coming Underground, am I clear?"

"Yes, you're clear," Sarah insisted. It had been awhile since she left the hospital. Was Toby still alright? Would he live long enough for her to give him this potion?

Jareth hesitated for a moment longer, and then finally held out the potion to her. Sarah took it from him, careful to avoid touching his hand again. Jareth then turned around, summoned a crystal and dropped it to the floor. As it hit the ground the crystal turned into a door. "You can get back into your own world through here," he said.

"All right," said Sarah, heading toward it. She reached for the handle, but then turned to face him again. "Thank you . . . Goblin King. Thank you so much for this."

Jareth wasn't looking at her. His eyes were fixed on the floor. "Don't . . . mention it."

Sarah sighed and reached for the door again.

"Sarah."

She turned around to face him. Jareth was still looking at the ground, his expression was difficult to read but he looked . . . almost . . . sad.

"Don't . . . disappoint me," he said in barely more than a whisper.

Before Sarah could ask him to clarify his meaning, the door burst open and Sarah fell through in a whirl of color and time. The next thing she knew, she was back in the bathroom at the hospital. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked just the same as ever but as she looked down and saw the small crystal bottle was still in her hand, she knew that what had just happened had been no dream.

Panicking, she hurried out of the room and tried to find a doctor to tell her what room Toby was in. Thankfully, she'd found a sympathetic nurse who gladly pointed her in the right direction. She told Sarah that Toby was out of the ER but he was still in critical condition. They'd moved him to another room to prepare him for surgery and so that his mother could see him. Sarah followed the nurse all the way to Toby's room and found Irene in there, kneeling before the bed and sobbing for her son.

"Toby," Sarah gasped as she saw him.

Toby looked terrible. What little she could see of him that wasn't obscured by plastic tubes and bandages was all red and black. His eyes were closed and there was a vivid, purple bruise all around his left eye. Sarah's stomach and heart both scrunched up together at the sight of him and she was afraid she would be sick again. She went over to Irene and patted her on the back.

"Go with the nurse," she said, softly. "Why don't you go check on Daddy for awhile? I'll stay here with Toby, okay?"

Irene was too distraught to argue. The nurse took her out of the room, leaving Sarah alone with Toby. Sarah uncorked the small bottle and stared at Toby's almost unfamiliar face.

"Please," she prayed. "Please let this work."

She leaned forward and pried Toby's lips apart and poured the swirling substance into Toby's mouth. Toby didn't move, but his throat convulsed slightly, she showed her that he'd managed to swallow it. After a few moments, more doctors came in and told her they needed to move Toby now.

Sarah watched him go, praying with all her heart.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and before Sarah was prepared for it, dawn had arrived. The sun rose ruby red in the east, casting a pink and orange light all over the sky. But even the dawn looked dark and depressing for Sarah. She still didn't know Toby's fate. Was he alright? Had the potion worked? Had Jareth lied to her?

Finally, at six o' clock in the morning, Toby's doctor came in. Sarah, awake only due to the large amount of coffee she'd consumed, jerked up and immediately questioned him. "Toby!" she demanded. "Is Toby okay?"

The doctor, to her great relief, smiled. "It looks like he's gonna be alright. I'm not sure what happened. We attempted to stop the bleeding, but it looks like it stopped all by itself. Stranger still, his head injury isn't as bad as we'd predicted either. It's already starting to heal nicely. I'll tell you what, I'm completely befuddled. All doctors have their cases where they're stumped at the results, but this has to be my first medical miracle in my career. You're brother's definitely got an angel looking out for him."

"Will he recover?" Sarah asked, breathlessly.

"Yes," he said. "If I'm right, he'll make a full recovery."

Sarah was almost beside herself with happiness. She fell at the doctors feet and cried out her relief. The potion must have worked. Toby was gonna be alright.

Outside of the hospital, a man with a pale face, slick black hair, and black clothes looked up at the floor where Sarah had been waiting to hear news of Toby. He tightened the crimson scarf around his neck and grinned up at her.

"Don't break my heart, Sarah Williams," he said in his British accent. "Don't break my heart."

And then, he vanished. Had anyone been watching, all they would have seen was the jet black crow flying off in the distance.

**Ying-Fa: Feel better now? Okay, tell me what you think!**


	5. A Surprise Visit

**Ying-Fa: Thank you all SO MUCH for your reviews! I just love them! Things are starting to heat up! Please keep reading and reviewing and enjoying my story!**

Sarah watched Toby's recovery more carefully than anyone could think possible. She needn't have bothered, however, for Toby was doing spectacularly for one so young who had been in such an accident. After two weeks, his broken bones had mended to the point where he could practically fly through the physical therapy sessions the nurses had assigned him to. Any sign of internal bleeding and major head injury had almost entirely vanished and before long he was complaining about how much longer he had to stay and when he could go home.

Toby's doctors were flabbergasted. They had never before seen a boy heal quite like Toby did. Nevertheless, they continued to check on him and run tests as they were supposed to. Their efforts were somewhat wasted. There was just no real point in looking for injuries in a boy who looked like he'd never been injured in his life.

Toby's miraculous recovery didn't fly unnoticed. Complete strangers came by to catch a glimpse of Toby, whom they viewed as something of a celebrity. A reporter or two had even come by and written small articles about him in the newspaper. They called him things like "Boy Wonder" and "Miracle Child" and had earned the Williams family more attention then they could have hoped for.

The reporters and supporters made Sarah feel nervous, however. She wondered if this kind of attention was the kind of thing the Goblin King had warned her against. The potion was clearly something extremely powerful and he knew it would attract attention if used in the Aboveground. Sarah simply let the world think what they wanted to think. She would keep the Goblin King's secret. She owed him that and so much more for what he'd done for Toby. Whenever she went to the hospital and saw Toby's bright, smiling face, happy and alive, she wanted to go Underground and thank him again personally. But Jareth had told her never to go back to the Underground, so she stayed where she was. Still, she'd done as much as she could for Jareth. She kept to the promises she'd made and even told Hoggle to lay off calling him a rat.

"You know it was probably a flook, right?" said Hoggle, eyeing her suspiciously when this happened. "Odds are he'll never do nothin' nice for anybody again."

"You're probably right," said Sarah. "Still, Toby's alive and he wouldn't be if not for him. I owe him that."

"But just what did he _do_?" Hoggle asked. "How did he help the youngen get better anyway?"

"He just did his thing," said Sarah, waving her arm in an imitation of Jareth summoning a crystal. "You know that magic, crystal, voodoo stuff he does. That'll all."

Hoggle grunted, his eyes disbelieving, but said nothing.

By the end of the month, the doctors had no more excuses to keep Toby in the hospital and they let him go. There was a large crowd outside the hospital, applauding Toby as he left. Watching them look at Toby with such adoration made Sarah feel uneasy, but not nearly as uneasy as Irene being so happy about all the attention. Sarah's stepmother seemed to thoroughly enjoy all the attention her son was getting and when she held his hand while walking him to the car, Sarah was vividly reminded of a woman she'd once seen at a circus, parading her fancy dogs around while they did tricks and earned applause from the crowd.

Weeks passed and there was no sign whatsoever of Toby's injuries coming back to hurt him. Sarah called him once a week to see how he was doing and he always appeared in good spirits. There was, however, something that bugged Sarah slightly. She'd known Toby's wasn't the best speller in the world and he had difficulty during some of the sports they had him do in P.E. and other things. Now he was getting a lot of attention from his coach at how wonderfully well his athletics had improved since the accident and he was getting As in, not only spelling tests, but all of his tests.

_The potion_, Sarah thought as she hung up the phone after hearing about how Toby's teacher had given him a special prize in class for being the only one to solve each and every one of the daily riddles that week. _Not only has it made him better physically, it's made him better in all ways. What was it? Did I give him some kind of Underground steroid or something?_ Sarah shuddered at the thought of having given her brother drugs when he was only ten years old. She wondered if it really had been a good idea to give it to him in the first place, but he seemed to be just fine. Besides, better this way then dead.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Jareth paced uneasily in his throne room, which was quiet for a change. It was well into the night and all the goblins had bunched up together in various nests all over the throne room, snoring loudly and muttering nonsense under their breaths. He usually chose times like these to do his deepest and most critical thinking. While there were no goblins to interrupt him or to distract him with whatever misdeeds they were up to.

Right now his mind was focused, as it had been a lot for the past few months, on Sarah. He had been most surprised to see her back in the Underground again; when he was positive he'd never see her again. He had been at peace with the thought of never seeing her, but her abrupt reappearance into his life and caused him a great deal of distress. She had come to him in a right state. Her face had been tear-streaked and her eyes swollen and puffy, her overall appearance disheveled. Despite all of that, she had come to him more beautiful than he could ever have imagined. She was a full grown woman now and, upon seeing her in distress, it had taken all of his willpower not take her into his arms and comfort her sorrows away.

But, no matter how beautiful she'd been, the deep bitterness within him had come back full force. The grief of having her torn away from him, the anger at her besting the labyrinth, and the shock of seeing her after ten years had taken over. But he did not regret it. Things were very complicated between him and Sarah, they always had been. He could not afford to act any less than the Goblin King she'd known and feared while running the labyrinth.

Jareth stopped pacing and sat down in this throne, still very deep in thought. Sarah's request had nearly torn him to shreds. How could she have asked such a thing from him? Of course, she didn't really know what she was asking for, but even so she was smart enough to know that death is a part of life and that cycle isn't to be broken. Then again, she was right. He had grown extremely fond of Jarethkin (Toby) while they had spent those hours together in the castle. He'd been a delightful little chap and his death would have been a terrible, tragic shame if not a crime! But still . . .

Jareth cursed his beating heart. Why, _why_, was he always so weak when it came to that girl? Well, he could answer that right away. He loved her, even after ten years of brooding over how she had bested him and rejected him. But why did his heart have to go to her? Why did it have to be her who captivated him mind, body, and soul? Especially when things were only going to get worse from this point onward. Sarah was growing up very fast. Soon it would be too late. Soon _they_ would find her and convert her.

Clapping a hand over his eyes, Jareth slumped further into his throne. His heart moaned at the thought of such a catastrophe happening. If _they_ did add Sarah to their ranks . . . he was as good as dead. He may have helped her to save her brother from death's grasp, but she would be likely to forget that once _they _had a hold on her. Especially now that he'd helped Sarah and gave into her request, it would only be a matter of time before the inevitable happened. If only there had been some other option. If only he'd had it in him to refuse her. But his heart had shattered and skewered him from the insides at the sight of her tears, of her prostrating herself before him. His heart beat him into submission, forced him to stop her tears and see her face smiling and happy once again.

He could only pray now. Pray that Sarah would know better. That she would see through the flattery and notice the horrors within. She was wise and strong; he knew she could see it if only she cared to look close enough. But still, humans were so easily swayed by the impossible. And the thought of Sarah choosing _them_ over him for such a stupid reason made him feel sick.

"Stars, I'm so weak," Jareth groaned. "Don't disappoint me, Sarah. Please don't disappoint me."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Two months after Toby left the hospital, Sarah was working at the diner with Trish and Ernie late on Friday evening. Closing time was nearing and the last of the customers were just finishing up their burgers and Cokes. Sarah was already untying her apron and pulling her hair out of the bun she'd fashioned it into.

"So, wanna go to Blue Bloods with me tonight?" Trish asked, also cleaning up.

Blue Bloods was a local bar and one of Trish's favorite haunts. Sarah shook her head. "I can't, Trish, sorry. I'm way behind on my story and I can't afford to put it off any longer."

"Aw," said Trish. "C'mon! You've have got to live a little. I can introduce you to my friends. We might even get you a guy friend, eh?" she nudged Sarah playfully.

Sarah chuckled. "Thanks but no thanks," she said. "Very, very no thanks."

"Sarah, haven't you _ever_ wanted to just relax and hang out with a couple guys?" said Trish, looking at Sarah with an almost worried expression. "I mean, they're not as bad as you seem to think they are."

"I just don't believe in casual flings with guys, that's all," said Sarah. "I wanna find one guy and stick with him forever, that's what I want."

"We'll you're never gonna find him unless you _get out more_," said Trish.

"That'll do, Trish, that'll do," said Sarah impatiently.

Just then, the bell over the door jingled. "We're closing," Trish called over Sarah's head.

"Oh, I know," said a woman's voice. "But I'm not looking for something to eat."

Sarah froze. That voice . . . it was . . . but it couldn't be! Slowly, she turned around, not daring to believe. Why was she here? What was she doing here?

"M-Mom?" she said, breathlessly.

Linda's eyes fell upon her daughter and she let out a squeal of delight. "Sarah!"

Sarah ran around the counter and threw her arms around her mother. It was so strange to see her again. She was just as beautiful as the last time they'd seen each other face-to-face before she ran off for New York twelve years ago. Her raven hair and emerald eyes that Sarah'd inherited were full of life and fire as they always were. Her skin was creamy and smooth and her figure was flawless.

"Oh, Sarah baby," said Linda, swaying Sarah slightly as they hugged. "Oh I missed you so much. My goodness how you've _grown_!"

"I can't believe it," said Sarah, breaking away from her mother. "Where have you been? What are you _doing_ here?"

"I'm here to see my Sarah, of course," said Linda, pinching Sarah cheek playfully. "My, it's been ages! I'm so sorry I haven't called in so long. Gee, where to begin, where to begin?"

"Is there another customer?" came Ernie's voice from the back room. He saw Linda and looked stunned. "Sarah, I didn't know you had a sister."

Linda laughed brightly. "Well, aren't you the sweetest! No, honey, I'm not her sister."

"Oh," said Ernie. "Um, cousin?"

"Can't bring yourself to say it, can you?" said Linda, still laughing heartily. "No sweet cakes, I'm her mama!"

Ernie blinked. "_Seriously_?"

"You just need new glasses," said Trish, playfully. "Well, this changes things. Sarah, you go ahead and chat with your mom. I'll finish up."

"Thanks Trish," said Sarah and she and Linda marched out of the diner arm-in-arm.

"So _talk_ to me!" said Linda. "What have you been up to these past few years?"

"Just school and work and stuff," said Sarah. "What about you? How was New York?"

"Cruel," said Linda. "Nothing short of cruel. They build you up then cast you down. All it takes is one pretty bimbo to come along and steal your part before they cast you out like an old glove."

"Oh," said Sarah. "Man, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Nah," said Linda, waving her hand. "It's nothing. Years go by; it's the least I can expect."

"Oh," Sarah said again.

"So, back to your place?" said Linda. "I'd rather hang with you a little bit then just go back to my hotel, if you don't mind having Mama hang around your place."

"No, of course you can come to my place for awhile," said Sarah. "Just follow me in my car."

From upon the roof of the diner, a black crow watched the two women get into their cars and drive away. It ruffled its feathers as it fixed its eyes on Linda's Porsche. It watched the two cars until they were out of sight, before it took off into the night sky. At the time, Sarah was so filled with nervous excitement at the sight of seeing her mother again and nearly deaf from the volume of the car radio that she failed to hear the small click coming from the rearview mirrors, as if something within them had just closed.

**Ying-Fa: The prodigal Mama returns! The mysterious crow reappears again! Round and round and round it goes. What's gonna happen? Ying-Fa knows! Okay, leave your reviews and I'll come back with the next chapter.**


	6. A Meeting that Never Came

**Ying-Fa: Thank you all for your paitence and kindness. Here's the next chapter.**

"So, tell me Sarah. What is going on in your life?"

Sarah and her mother, Linda, were sitting comfortably in Sarah's living room. Sarah had fixed them both up with hot chocolate and they sat sipping it on Sarah's couch as they spoke.

"Nothing," Sarah said with a shrug. "Seriously, everything's pretty much normal. I've been working at the diner, trying to get published, making ends meet, the whole nine yards."

"Is that all?" said Linda, pouting slightly. "No boyfriends? No drama? Come, come, I didn't raise you to be mundane. Where's your sense of wonder? There has to be some fascinating adventures in your life."

"Unfortunately, Irene isn't as into fascinating adventures as you are," said Sarah, smiling feebly. "She was determined that I go to college, get a job, and make my way in life as a normal human being, not a star."

"Ah, stardom," said Linda, dreamily. "But those days seem ages ago now. I used feel like the theater was my only goal in life. When I got there, everything was so surreal, like a dream come true. But, stardom is tricky. I mean, there's only so many times you can be cast as 'Village Woman #1' y'know. And then, the silent killer of all hopes and dreams creeps up on you."

"What do you mean 'silent killer'?" Sarah asked, perplexed.

"Age," said Linda, warily. "Once forty sneaks up on you, it'll all down hill from there."

"What about Jeremy?" Sarah asked, remembering her mother's boyfriend from so long ago. "Where's he?"

Linda sighed sadly. "Jeremy and I . . . had something of a falling out. He was better at getting parts then I was. Before long, I became an anchor to him and he wanted to set sail again. Soon, he had to chose between me and a promising role in a soap opera with a voodoo woman named Phyllis." Linda laughed almost bitterly, shaking her head. "But don't judge him. He's only a man."

Sarah lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," said Linda. "I'm not. I guess I had it coming to me. Leaving a husband and a daughter so I can meander with a man who loved stardom more that I ever could, it kinda figures karma would come back and bite me."

"Why didn't you come back?" said Sarah. "After Jeremy left you, why did it take you so long to come back?"

"I've been seeing the world," said Linda, beaming. "After stardom threw me out, I was picked up and pieced together by a group of friends I'd met at a Lady's Club."

"_You_ joined a _Lady's Club_?" said Sarah, looking thunderstruck. "Is that complete with, y'know, tea parties and book discussions and crumpets?"

Linda laughed heartily at that. "It isn't _that_ kind of Lady's Club," she said. "It's a group of women the world hasn't been to kind to. There are others who'd reached for stardom, but got even more brutally devoured than I was. We go out into the world, travel, and see the sights. You know the 100 places to go before you die? I've already been to 47!"

"47, huh?" said Sarah "Well, sounds like you've still got a ways to go. I hope your Lady's Club keeps treating you well."

Linda's smile faltered somewhat. "Yeah, well, there's always been something missing."

Sarah stared at her.

"Ever since I left, all I could focus on was you," said Linda, gazing deeply into her daughter's eyes. "I always just kept thinking 'Where's Sarah?' 'What's she doing?' 'Is she happy?' I just . . . it wasn't like how it used to be before I was a mom. I knew that out there I had a little part of me that wasn't with me. Whenever I went to a new place with the Lady's Club, I couldn't help but wonder how much more fun it would be if you were there too."

Sarah's heart swelled. Her mother had missed her. Linda, while enjoying life to the fullest, had missed her and thought about her. So often throughout her life, Sarah wondered if her mother ever thought about her. Had Linda missed Sarah even half as much as Sarah had missed Linda? To know that she truly did miss her, that she'd wanted to be with her . . . it was all she needed.

Blinking back happy tears, she asked, "But why didn't you take me with you? If you had given me the chance to choose between you and dad, I would have picked you in a heartbeat! I would have loved to have gone with you."

"Oh, baby, I'm so sorry," said Linda. "I _so_ would have taken you with me. But think about where I was heading. I was traveling, full-speed, down a road that can kill a person so easily. It's such a scary business and I didn't want you sucked into it. I wanted you to have a stable, simple childhood. I wanted you healthy and happy. I knew you could definitely get that with Robert and there was no way you'd get it with me."

"Instead I got stuck with Irene," grumbled Sarah.

"Ah, and we're back to your stepmom," said Linda. "Come on, sweetie, she can't have been that bad."

Sarah shrugged. "She just saw me as an annoying problem in her life with Daddy. And when Toby came, I was her official maid-girl. I babysat Toby 'only if it didn't interfere with my plans'. I cleaned up the entire house 'because it wouldn't hurt me to lend her a hand'. I wasn't allowed to go out with friends 'because we're on a tight budget!'" Sarah mimicked Irene's shrill voice whenever she quoted her. Linda was smiling and laughing again.

"Sarah," she said. "The woman's only looking out for you. That's a dang good thing for her to do, especially since you're not her daughter. Cut her some slack, huh?"

"I can't cut her slack," said Sarah, bitterly. "You should see the way she parades Toby around ever since he got better from his accident."

"Ah, yes," said Linda. "I read about that in the paper. Is he okay?"

"He's more than okay," said Sarah, somewhat uncomfortably. "It's really a miracle and I'm so glad he's safe. Still, Irene shouldn't be turning her son into a show-dog when he nearly died! It's insulting!"

"I'll bet she just fell under the spell that the flash of a camera can cast upon someone," said Linda, dreamily. "Nothing beats getting your picture taken and put in the newspaper. Even people like her are susceptible to the _bug_ of fame."

"Whatever," said Sarah, bitterly.

"Sarah, I want you to come with me," said Linda, quickly.

Sarah turned and stared at her mother. "What? Come with you where?"

"To the rest of the world!" said Linda, enthusiastically. "I want you to see the rest of the 53 places with me! Come on, what do ya say?"

Sarah was stunned. "Y-you want me to come with you? Seriously?"

"Seriously," said Linda. "I wanna make it up to you. All those years we've been apart, I want to make up the lost time. What do you say? Let's go on the biggest adventure of a lifetime."

"Mom, I . . . I don't know," said Sarah, honestly. "I mean, I've still got my job and my writing and Daddy and Toby and . . ."

"Oh, put the world behind you for a change," said Linda. "There's no better feeling than the feeling of freedom! Seriously, just give it some thought. You don't have to answer me right away if you don't want to. Just think it over a little bit. My, my, is that the time!?"

Sarah looked up at the clock on the wall. Almost 11:30 at night.

"Gee, time flies," said Linda, putting her cup down. "I'd better skedaddle. I'll see you tomorrow, and we can talk some more, okay?"

"Um, yeah sure," said Sarah smiling at her mother.

As Linda left, Sarah thought over her offer. Traveling the world, seeing the sights with her mother, it was all she had ever dreamed of when she was young. Now, however, she wasn't sure what to do. She did have a job and a stable life here where she was. Not to mention she wasn't far from her family . . . but then again, Linda was her family too. But it had been _so long_ since they'd spoken and now she pops up and asks her to join her and her Lady's Club in a trip around the world.

"Hoggle, I need you," said Sarah, looking the mirror hanging from her wall. She needed a third party's opinion. She looked into the mirror, expecting Hoggle's overlarge nose and watery eyes to appear there any second.

But he didn't come.

"Hoggle, I need you," Sarah repeated. Nothing happened. Sarah felt stunned. Hoggle usually came and went as he pleased, but when she said she needed him, he usually came right away. Sarah tried again.

"Hoggle! Ludo, I need you! Sir Didymus?" Still, the mirror remained empty except for her own hurt-looking face.

"Hoggle? Ludo? Sir Didymus?" Sarah tried again. "Gringal? Wrackspurt? Diggle? Snodgrass? Skab? Anyone?"

Still, nothing. Now feeling very bewildered and sad, Sarah mustered up her courage and dared to say, "Jareth, the Goblin King, I need you."

She waited for a moment, silent and scared. Then she looked back in the mirror, expecting to meet a pair of mismatched eyes and be berated for daring to summon a king as if he were a common goblin.

But the mirror remained empty.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Around the world? Get real, sis!"

"I am being real, Toby," said Sarah, holding the phone between her shoulder and her cheek because her hands were busy pulling her hair into a bun as she got ready for work that evening. "I just wondered what you'd say if I did do such a thing."

"No way," said Toby, hotly. "I wanna go to! If I can't go too, you're not going!"

"Ha, ha," said Sarah. "Toby, I seriously doubt you wanna go anywhere with a bunch of old ladies. Besides, you're still in school."

"How come you're going off with a bunch of old ladies then?" said Toby. "You're not old! You're not even a mom yet!"

Sarah was glad he couldn't see her blush. "Well, my mom wants me to go with her and I'm not sure yet. Put Daddy on the phone, okay?"

"Okay," said Toby, and Sarah could here him yelling "DAAAAADDYYYYYYY! SARAH WANTS TO TALK TO YOOOOOOU!" on the other end of the line.

Sarah laughed as she waited for her dad to come onto the phone, but the sound of her laughter sounded hollow and unreal. After failing to summon her friends to her, she had decided that perhaps they were all asleep and hadn't heard her call. So she'd gone to bed, uneasy and slightly hurt. The next morning she'd tried again, only to get the same result. No matter who she called, or where she called from, or how often she called for them, not a single Undergrounder came to answer her call. The thought made her miserable. This was the first time her friends had ever failed to come to her when she needed them.

"Hello? Sarah?"

"Hey, Daddy," said Sarah now tying her work apron around her waist. "Well, you're not going to believe who dropped by work the other day." And she told him all about Linda's sudden reappearance.

Robert listened to her without saying a word. When she'd finished, he sounded rather stunned. "Is . . . is that so? Well, Sarah, it's completely up to you. If you went off around the world with your mother, I'm sure she'd appreciate it and you'd have a wonderful time together. I just can't guarantee your job will still be there and, well, you wanted to get published soon, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I know," said Sarah. "But, honestly, what do you think of Mom? Is this something she always does?"

"Oh, well, when I met your mother she was always so light-hearted and loved adventure," said Robert, his voice becoming rather reminiscent. "She never slowed down, not when we were married, or when she was pregnant, or even when you were born. She's always been spontaneous. I guess you'll just have to go with the flow."

Sarah wasn't exactly sure if that was what she wanted to hear, but she thanked her father and hung up the phone. She knew her father would be passive and wouldn't force her to do anything. She knew that if she asked Trish, she'd say, "ABSOLUTELY, GIRLFRIEND! Oh, I am so JEALOUS of you!" And she knew that Toby wouldn't help her decided at all, seeing as he wouldn't like the idea of her being far away or unhappy. She wished she could see her friends. Why weren't they answering her?

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"What . . . is . . . with . . . this . . . stupid . . . thing!?" roared Gringal the goblin, as he shook the mirror that took him and the rest of the creatures to the Aboveground in order to visit the Conqueror of the Labyrinth. "Why can't we get through?"

"We've been trying for ages and ages!" grumbled Skab. "Should we break it?"

"No!" cried Wrackspurt. "They say in the Above world, that if you dear to break a mirror you'll get followed by black cats!"

"That's not what they say," said Snodgrass.

"Oh," said Wrackspurt, thoughtfully. "Did I get it wrong? I was pretty sure that was it. Or maybe it's when you step under a ladder you'll knock your head on wood?"

"What, precisely, are you all doing?" said a cold, sharp voice from above them.

All of the goblins gasped and spun around to see their king glaring down at them, his mismatched eyes traveling from their guilty faces to the mirror. "What's going on? What are you doing with that mirror?"

The goblins eyes darted from between one another, each one clearly wondering who was going to talk. After a moment Diggle, the bravest of the lot, stepped forward.

"Begging for a thousand pardons, Your Majesty," he said. "But we's been having problems with the mirror ever since a few hours ago."

"Problems?" asked Jareth, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Sire," said Diggle. "We heard the . . . um . . . _her_ calling us over to the other side and she sounded troubled. So, we's gone to go and see her through the mirror is all, Your Majesty, but somethin' is a-mister."

"It's _amiss_, you idiot," said Jareth, but said no more. He, too, had very surprisingly felt a summons from Sarah. He'd heard her call his name, but why on earth would she? He tried to see her through his crystals but, for some odd reason, they refused to show her image.

_I can't scry upon her, _he thought. _And the goblins can't reach her through the mirrors. Somebody must have broken the connection. But . . . surely . . ._

"I will be back later," said Jareth, throwing on a cloak and heading for the window.

The goblins all looked stricken. "Y-your Majesty," said Skab. "We didn' mean nothin' by it! We's was just thinkin' about tea with the girlie. It's not like we prefer . . ."

"I said later!" snapped Jareth, and then he transformed into his owl form and took off into the night.

**Ying-Fa: Ut oh! Things are getting intense! Please keep reviewing and I'll be back soon with the next chapter.**


	7. A Startling Revelation

**Ying-Fa: Oh, here comes the good part! I hope that I still have your attention and this story is going well for you. Thank you for your lovely reviews.**

After work, Sarah went home to find another message on her answering machine. Warily, she pressed the button and heard her mother's voice.

"**Hey, Sar. Listen, I want you to meet the rest of the Lady's Club tomorrow. I want you to get a chance to meet everyone and get a good look at what coming with me on my trip will be like.**"

Sarah heard that and felt her insides squirm. Her mother seemed to really be pushing this whole Lady's Club thing on her. The idea of meeting them filled her with an odd anxiety, as if she were about to meet somebody very important and hard to please. Still, she had the day off tomorrow and it did seem rather important to Linda that she come and see them. She then noticed her second message and pressed the button again.

"**Sarah! It's Mel. Listen, I have a hair appointment tomorrow so could you be so sweet as to . . .**"

Sarah hung up the phone before the message could finish. Did Mel have to try and get her to work for her _every_ time somebody else tried to invite her to something? Sarah had hardly even seen the woman, she worked so little. She constantly wondered why her father's friend didn't just fire her. She remembered the only two times she'd ever seen Mel, or seen who might have been Mel. A woman with an endless cascade of ruby red curls dressed in short, sparkly dresses that were almost as flashy as the Goblin King's attire. The two times she'd seen her, Mel seemed to leave the instant Sarah came in the door and sometimes Sarah wondered if Mel was avoiding her for some reason.

Putting Mel out of her mind, she picked up the phone and called the hotel her mother was staying at. When Linda picked up, she sounded on edge and anxious but when Sarah told her that she would like to see the rest of the Lady's Club, Linda let out a scream of delight.

"Oh, Sarah baby, you are going to LOVE IT!" she said, breathlessly. "When would the best time for you be?"

"I have tomorrow off," said Sarah, amused at how her mom sounded like such a school-girl on the phone.

"Alrighty," said Linda. "I'll come pick you up at your house at . . . oh say . . . three o'clock in the afternoon?"

"Sounds good," said Sarah.

"Okay, I'll see you then," said Linda and she hung up.

Sarah put the phone back down, feeling slightly odd. Her mother was certainly happy that she could come and see her friends. She didn't know why or what reasoning was behind it, but Sarah had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. The kind of feeling she got when she knew she's made a mistake that would come back to bite her somewhere down the line.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Jareth flew in his owl form through the late afternoon sky. It was dark and cloudy in the Aboveground today. The air smelled heavily of rain and every twenty minutes or so there was a slight rumble of thunder. A storm was coming and would likely hit before he managed to return Underground.

He scanned the ground below him, looking for Sarah's house. The goblins had described it to him and he now needed to be there. There was something very fishy going on. Something he didn't like in the slightest and he had a very bad feeling that it would bode ill for him and his world.

When the goblins had informed him that they could not answer Sarah's summons through the mirrors, he'd investigated it himself. He found the answer right away. Somebody had broken the magical link between Sarah and the Underground, the link that had been created the day, so long ago, that she'd wished her brother away. Even now he had no clue as to who could have done it. Seeing the link broken made him extremely uneasy and he decided at once to go to Sarah personally and speak to her.

The storm started. Rain came down in bucket loads all over the town. Jareth looked over all the houses, searching for Sarah's and getting irritated when he couldn't find it right away. He'd been considering his options and he didn't like them. Time was running out and fast. He didn't have much longer before Sarah would make the decision that would destroy him. But she _wasn't like that_. She was _smart_. She understood things that other people don't want to think about, let alone understand. Sarah would make the right choice, wouldn't she? Wouldn't she!?

As Jareth perched on a rooftop to rest a minute, he saw one of those Aboveground carriages, or 'automobiles' pass by, splashing water from the road onto the sidewalk. Almost against his will, Jareth's eyes followed the car. Knowing without knowing _how_ he knew, he could tell that the one he sought was in there. Stretching his damp wings, he followed after it, afraid of where his wings would take him.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah sighed as she looked out of the window of her mother's Porsche. What a time for it to start raining, she thought. She and Linda where heading towards one of the Lady's Club meeting houses a few miles outside of her hometown. Linda was driving and humming merrily as she drove.

"So just who am I going to meet?" Sarah asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh well there's Natasha," said Linda, pleasantly. "She's the chairman . . . or I guess chairwoman of the Club. There's also Eveline and Wendy, and Joyce and they're all members like me. Oh, you're just going to love this place Sarah."

"Mom, you're making it sound like I'm going to join the club or something," said Sarah, laughing slightly. "Don't you have to be over . . . forty or something to join?"

Linda simply smiled and shook her head. Sarah was suddenly struck by a strange thought. Linda must be over fifty by now. In fact, Sarah had almost said 'over fifty' but caught herself. Still, regardless of how old she was, she looked barely out of her twenties. Sarah suddenly felt an odd pang in her stomach. Was her mother taking extreme measures when it came to her image?

"It's just up ahead," said Linda. "Look."

Sarah looked and was unable to stop the small "ooh!" of surprise from jumping out of her throat. The 'meeting house' was actually a very large and extravagant looking hotel. It was a mixture of a cabin and a mansion with wood and stone walls, sprawling grounds, a lavish yard and warm looking lights sparkling at them through the windows.

"Is . . . is this where you've been staying?" Sarah asked.

"Of course dear," said Linda. She drove them along a cobblestone path that lead right up to the front doors. To further Sarah's amazement, there were uniformed night men and a valet waiting for them. One of the night men opened an enormous black umbrella for Sarah and Linda to step under to avoid getting wet and the valet took the keys from Linda and drove the Porsche away.

"Isn't it nice?" said Linda.

"Um, a bit lavish isn't it?" said Sarah. "For a retired actress?"

"Not at all," said Linda, happily.

"Mom, I'm serious," said Sarah. "How do you pay for this? Is this the kind of thing this club always does? You told me you've been out of work. How have you been able to afford this stuff?"

"Relax, sweetie," said Linda, soothingly. "I have all my finances taken care of, don't worry. Come on, Natasha is waiting for us in the lounge."

Linda let Sarah up the steps and into the large glass doors. The inside of the hotel was just as beautiful as the outside. The marble walls and great pillars gave the place a lovely, castle-like effect. A massive crystal chandelier sparkled from the ceiling, sending a twinkling light over the lobby. A cherry desk where the concierge sat was at one end of the lobby and all around there were other doors that lead off into a great unknown that Sarah was dying to explore. A bellhop came by and took off Sarah's bulky black coat and Linda gleaming black parka.

"This way," said Linda, taking her along lobby. Sarah felt particularly underdressed in this wonderful building. She was swearing a dress shirt than hung off her shoulders and black slacks, whereas Linda wore what can only be described as a little black dress. But as uncomfortable and curious as Sarah was, Linda seemed to be perfectly at home.

Linda opened a large pair of oak doors and showed Sarah into a grand lounge with a long, Persian rug spread along the floor, clumps of comfy leather chairs and a great stone fireplace. Linda walked over toward the fireplace and sat down on a sofa and Sarah sat next to her, perhaps a little closer than necessary. Sarah couldn't help but look at the walls. They were covered in hunting trophies. The heads of all sorts of animals were glaring at her through glassy, lifeless eyes. If she had felt uneasy before, it was nothing compared to how she felt now.

"Good afternoon," said a voice. "Dreadful weather we're having today, isn't it?"

Sarah jumped and looked around for the source of the voice. In a chair facing the fire so that Sarah couldn't see that it was occupied, a woman turned to face them. Sarah's first thought of her was that she looked just like an Egyptian queen. She had shoulder-length black hair that was almost unnaturally straight and glossy. Her almond shaped eyes were the color of chestnuts and her lips were coated in a shocking shade of red lipstick. An astonishing necklace of opals gleamed at her throat and two more opals dangled from her earlobes. She wore a red satin gown that made her lips stand out even more and three or four rings glittered from her hands.

"Natasha," said Linda, standing up from the couch, her arms open wide. The two women embraced in a very ladylike way and kissed each other's cheeks.

"Linda, my dear," said Natasha, beaming at her and then looking down at Sarah. "And here she is. Sarah. Come, come, dear one and let us take a good look at you."

Sarah would have preferred to remain seated, but stood up and moved into the firelight anyway. Natasha's eyes gleamed as they drank in Sarah's image and again Sarah wished she'd taken the time to smarten herself up better.

"My, my, there is such a resemblance," said Natasha. "You're mother has graced you with the majority of her loveliness."

"Oh, thanks," said Sarah, uncertainly.

"Yes, you truly are a princess," said Natasha, her eyes sparkling.

"Th-thank you very much," said Sarah, embarrassed to be stuttering in front of her. "I have to admit you're a lot . . . younger than I thought you'd be." It was the truth. Natasha looked about in her mid thirties at the most.

"Why, thank you," said Natasha, beaming. "You only ever get older if you let yourself, as I always say. Now, your mother tells me that you might be joining us in the rest of our little trip around the world."

"Yeah," said Sarah, sitting nervously. "I'm . . . not sure yet. I mean, I've got a job to do and my dad and his family are in town and . . ."

"Oh, everybody has responsibility," said Natasha, understandingly. "But, seriously, isn't fulfilling your mother's wish important to you?"

"What?" said Sarah, confused. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

Natasha blinked, then turned to frown at Linda. "Darling Linda, surely you've told her, haven't you?"

"I only just showed up here, Natasha," said Linda, with an odd look that might have been uneasiness. "I didn't want her to make the decision with that hanging over her head."

"With what hanging over my head?" Sarah asked, sharply.

Natasha looked expectantly at Linda, who sighed in a brave sort of way as she looked at Sarah. "Sweetie . . . I'm sorry I've kept it hidden from you but . . . you see this club," Linda took another breath. "Is made up of dying women."

Sarah stared at her mother, all the wind knocked out of her. "Wh-what?"

Linda nodded and smiled something that might also have been a grimace. "It's cancer, sweetie," she said. "Natasha here has it too. All the members of the Lady's Club are going to die sometime soon. This is just a way for us to do all the things we want before . . . it happens."

"Oh," Sarah moaned, clapping a hand to her mouth. "Oh my . . ."

Natasha nodded solemnly. "Don't feel so badly, Sarah dear," she said. "Linda's been at peace with her fate for ages now. But it was always her desire to make amends with you and spend some quality time with you before her journey ends."

"Mom," said Sarah, choking back tears of horror and disbelief. "Oh Mom. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," said Linda, solemnly. "I'm alright with what is happening to me." She sighed. "Not all of us can be miracles like your half-brother, I guess."

Sarah blinked. Her mother was dying. Toby had been going to die too, but she'd managed to save him. The potion! Jareth's potion! If she could just go back and tell him about her mother's fate . . .

But Jareth's words to her shoved the idea right out of her head.

_You are to tell no one, _no one,_ about this substance. _

_Don't come back to the Underground again._

_I don't care if every single person you've known and loved is dying all at once. You are never to ask me for this again, Sarah. Ever._

Sarah slumped further in the couch, feeling helpless and miserable. She wouldn't be able to save her mother without the use of Jareth's potion, but it would be breaking their deal if she went back and asked him for more. She loved her mother dearly, just as she loved Toby, but now there was nothing at all she could to about it. She couldn't save Linda as she'd saved Toby. The knowledge made her feel useless and utterly, completely sad.

"Mom," she said. "I'm . . . I'm so sorry. I wi-I mean I hope there was something I could do for you but . . . there isn't anything I can think of. I'm sorry."

Sarah may have been imagining it, but she could have sworn she saw Linda and Natasha's eyes flash as Sarah had stopped herself from saying "I wish." The next instant, however, any trace of it was gone and Linda was smiling at her in a forlorn way.

"Well, there is something I want you to do for me," she said. "Come with us. Around the world! See the sights. If there's anyway I wanna go, it's with a head full of memories of going on the best adventures the world has to offer, with my only daughter at my side."

Sarah lowered her eyes to the ground. What should she say?

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Jareth stared into the window of the lounge, watching the three women, and his heart breaking into a thousand pieces.

_No,_ he thought miserably. _No, Sarah, no! Not you! Not you too! Not Sarah. Please, not Sarah._

He would give anything he owned to stop this from happening. His throne, his crown, his labyrinth, his powers, anything he owned he would give it to stop what was happening now. His whole being ached at the thought of Sarah with those wretched, horrible, evil women. Especially . . .

Jareth hung limply on the branch were he had a clear view of the talking women in the lounge through a window. He let the thundering rain crash down on him in floods, his misery taking complete control over him. Had it been no good from the start? Was Sarah already tied so tightly around Lilith's finger that it was impossible for her from the start? And to think he'd dared to hope. To think that he'd dared to try to hope! To think he had gone so far in his deluded wishful-thinking so as to put his heart on the line. With one last miserable glance at the three of them, Jareth stretched his wings and took off into the night.

BAM!

The next thing Jareth knew was agonizing, excruciating pain exploding through his entire body. Blinded and dizzy, he fell from the sky and landed with a splash into the muddy earth below. At that moment, a shadow fell over him. Three women stood above him, one of them with a shotgun in her hands.

"Don't worry," said the woman with the gun. "It's not going to kill you. I used salt rounds. They're not lethal, but they sure do hurt, don't they?"

"And the salt cancels out your magic, doesn't it Mr. Fae?" said another of the women, leering down at him.

She was right. Just as she said it, Jareth felt the salt from the gun seep into his feathers and suddenly he was reverting back to his original form. The next thing he knew he was normal again, his arms and legs sprawled out at odd angles, his shot shoulder blinding him with pain.

"You think that after all these years we wouldn't recognize a Fae in disguise when we saw one?" said the third woman, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket and a small bottle. She poured whatever was in the bottle onto the handkerchief and then knelt down beside Jareth and covered his nose and mouth with it. He struggled desperately against whatever it was he was breathing in, but the pain in his body was too much. Jareth felt himself slip further and further into a deep, blissful nothingness. Just before he lost himself entirely he heard one of those foul women speak to him.

"It's okay, Mr. Fae. There's no need to be scared. And if you are scared, it won't be for long."

**Ying-Fa: Le gasp! What a terrible and unusual turn of events! What's going on? Well . . . you'll have to find out!**

**A/N: Here's a quick, quick little question I was hoping you readers could answer that would make a chapter I'm prewritting a little easier. What do you have nightmares about? If you're lucky, you may just be reading your nightmare in a future chapter. Thank you very much for your help and cooperation!**


	8. A Terrible Discovery

**Ying-Fa: Wow! I got so many reviews I could cry! Thank you all so much for sharing your advice and your nightmares with me. Now I've got plenty of the material I need. I would have written about my own nightmares but they're either too weird or not scary enough. Oh, well. Anyway, here's the next chapter!**

"Sarah?"

Sarah hadn't realized that she'd been staring off into space, still trying to take hold of the fact that her mother was fatally ill and wanted to go with her around the world. "Why . . . didn't you just tell me about this when you first got here?" she asked, lifting her eyes to meet her mothers.

Linda shrugged. "I didn't something like that hanging over your head while you made the decision," she said.

"You could have told me," said Sarah, lowering her head again. "I'm not a child anymore, y'know."

"Of course I know," said Linda, softly. "But something like this is just so . . . harmful to a person's . . ."

"Harmful?" said Sarah, her head snapping back up. "Mom, I'm twenty-five years old! You can't seriously think I don't know what cancer is, do you?"

"Now, Sarah," said Natasha. "Your mother just wanted your happiness is all. Your happiness is her happiness. We can all tell. You belong with your mother, that much is clear."

Sarah scowled at Natasha. "What do you know about where I belong? I don't even know you!"

"Now Sarah," said Linda.

"Stop saying that," Sarah cried. "You're both treating me like some bad-tempered little kid. I've had enough of this. I wanna go home."

Sarah got up and started to leave the luxurious lounge. She wasn't even entirely sure where her temper had come from. All she knew is that she didn't want to be here anymore. She wanted to be very far away from her mother right now. Things had seemed simpler when she was very far away.

"Sarah, wait!"

Linda was hurrying over to her, looking stricken. "Sweetie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, really. I just want you to come with me so much. I know you're an adult now and I respect that. I shouldn't have kept secrets from you, I really shouldn't have. Please, say you'll come with me."

Sarah looked her mother up and down. When had she become . . . so small? When Sarah was growing up, her mother seemed so tall, so indestructible. But now a tiny, dark-haired woman was looking at her with her hands in front of her in a pleading manner, but her glassy eyes seemed . . . oddly empty.

"I'll think about it," said Sarah. "Right now, I just want to go home."

"All right," said Linda, sounding relieved. "Come on, Sarah, I'll take you home."

"No," snapped Sarah, almost too harshly. "I'll call a cab. I just need to be by myself for awhile, okay?"

For a moment, Linda looked almost offended, but then she put on a smiling expression and nodded understandingly. "Okay. There's a phone in the lobby. You can call a cab from there."

"Thanks," grunted Sarah.

"I love you, Sweetie."

Sarah froze. Her mother had never said that to her. Well, not those particular words. She always said things like, "I got lots of love for you," and "I heart you to pieces!" But never just plain, old, powerful "I love you." Suddenly unable to look her mother in the face or say it back, Sarah quickly left the room. As she left, another woman quickly came into the room, looking flushed and excited. She apologized quickly for almost knocking into Sarah, but then ran straight for the chair Natasha was sitting in.

Sarah ignored her and crossed the length of the enormous lobby. The concierge was gone, but Sarah could see the old-fashioned phone booth at the other end. Sarah went over to it, reaching into her purse for change. She put a few quarters in the slot and called the number of a cab company she knew. She asked for a cab to pick her up and the man on the other end assured her that a taxi would be at the hotel in about twenty minutes.

Hanging up, she just managed to see Linda and Natasha coming out of, not the lounge, but another room at the far end of the lobby. This surprised her. When had they moved? Had it been while she was on the phone? She stared after them, but they didn't seem to notice her. The two women where whispering amongst one another and looking very pleased about something. Without glancing Sarah's way, they climbed up a set of marble steps and out of sight. Sarah stepped out of the booth and looked out the door where her mother and Natasha had come out of, thinking . . .

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Dark . . .

Everything was dark . . . and heavy . . .

Something was . . . very wrong. . . . Horribly . . . terribly wrong. Nothing made sense. He felt so weak . . . tired . . . heavy.

Jareth opened his eyes to realize the horror that surrounded him. He was lying in a chair that held him in a half-sitting up position, but the terrible thing about it were the strong leather straps that bound him to it. The straps were belted tightly so that he couldn't move at all, his arms strapped to the armrests. Something cloth was tied around his mouth, keeping him silent. Worst yet was the shining white ring of salt that was poured all around him, keeping his magic at bay.

"Oh, our guest awakens!"

Jareth turned his head to see two of his female attackers staring fondly at him. One of them was messing with a machine that had large plastic tubes around it and a large tank attached to it. The worst part was the small needle she was sterilizing. Jareth couldn't move or speak, so he gave them the worst glare he could muster. If only looks really could kill . . .

"My, my, that's an ugly look," said one of the women, one with caramel colored hair and freckles. "It's bad for that pretty face of yours."

"It's gonna be just fine, Mr. Fae," said her companion, a short-haired brunette. "I assure you, our way of doing things has gotten a lot more humane as years have gone by. You'll feel a slight pinch when the needle goes in, but after that you'll just feel like you're falling asleep."

"Hm," said Freckles. "I wonder . . . do Fae sleep?"

"I don't know," said Brunette. "I mean, he's able to be unconscious. Chloroform tends to do that."

"I wonder why Natasha insists on humane all of a sudden?" said Freckles. "It's not like they're human."

"That's true," said Brunette. "They're not human, but this way is also neater. There's also the fact that it's always so much better when it's still warm."

Jareth's heart was pounding so hard against his ribs, he was surprised he couldn't see it bouncing in his chest. He struggled desperately against his bonds, even though he already knew there was no point. There was no way he could free himself without magic. There was no way he could summon his magic when he was still half drugged and with all this salt everywhere. On top of that, his shoulder was consuming him with pain. That was where their salt round had hit him and he was fairly certain his shoulder was either broken or dislocated from the wound.

He was going to die, he realized. He was going to _die_.

_No!_ Jareth thought in horror, struggling with all his might now. _No! I can't! I can't die. Not like this! Please, not like this! Anyway, ANY other way than this. Please, I can't die like this! I can't die like this!_

_Not . . . like her . . ._

"Heavens, he's a feisty one," said Brunette, disapprovingly. "Bung him some more chloroform, make him hold still."

Freckles went over to a table near the dreadful machine and started pouring some liquid into a cloth again. She marched over to Jareth again and placed the cloth over his nose and mouth. Jareth fought against it with all his might, but the inhalant filled his head with darkness again. Just before he slipped back into darkness he heard the women speaking again.

"Let's go back upstairs and tell them he's all ready. She said to wait until that daughter of hers has left. Then we can start."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah squeezed herself tightly into a shadowed corner as she heard somebody coming up the stairs. Two more women came up, whispering excitedly together, not noticing Sarah in her cramped hiding spot. She was scared and felt extremely guilty to be snooping around, but she just couldn't help it. There was something beyond fishy going on and she wanted to find out what it was.

When she heard the two women close the doors, Sarah felt it was safe to keep going down the stairs she'd discovered upon opening the door in the lobby she'd seen her mother and Natasha coming through. She felt a little stupid, creeping around like a curious five-year-old, but she _was_ curious. Her mother seemed to have total faith in this weird Natasha person and she kept getting the feeling that this wasn't just a group of dying women living life to the fullest. She didn't even know where her suspicion was coming from, but it was solidly, surely there.

At the bottom of the steps, Sarah looked around at a kind of basement. The doors here were particularly less impressive then the rest of the hotel had been. They were labeled things like 'boiler room' and 'service elevator'. Only one of the doors wasn't labeled and it stood slightly ajar. A narrow strip of florescent light shot out from the small crack and cast a long, golden line across the dark floor. Intrigued, Sarah stepped forward. She wanted to see what was beyond the door, but her guilt prevented her from going forth and opening it fully. Almost against her will, she reached the door, but didn't open it. She'd just take one little peek. That's all she would do. She'd just peek inside through the crack and that would be all. She couldn't hear anyone inside. Sarah leaned closer and stared into the room, not touching the door.

She couldn't see much. There were a couple of chairs and blank cement walls. Then there was something else that she saw. Something that was very familiar. It was pointed black boot. Her heart jumping into her throat, she threw the door open wide.

In a kind of lounge chair lay none other than the Goblin King himself. If the sight of him wasn't enough to cause her a panic attack, the situation he was in was enough to do the trick. He was strapped to the chair with tight leather belts, a gag around his mouth. He appeared to be unconscious. His chest was rising and falling, but his brow was creased in an almost horrified expression. Around him was a white circle of what looked like salt, and there was a machine next to him that Sarah recognized as something rather like the machine used that were used at blood drives. The only difference was this machine was much bigger and it didn't empty into a small bag, but into a plastic container that resembled a milk carton, only five times bigger.

Freaking out, repulsed by what she was seeing, Sarah did the only thing that was on her mind. She went over and started to free Jareth from the leather straps. He didn't wake up as she worked on the belts and he didn't so much as flinch when she removed the gag from his mouth. Once he was out, Sarah tried to lift him out of the chair. His dead weight sagged against her and she heaved with all her might, dragging him out of the chair and the circle of salt.

_Oh, he's so heavy!_ Sarah thought through her panic. _There's no possible way I'll get him up the stairs and out of here without anybody noticing. Oh, I wish there was a way to get him out of here unnoticed . . . and it would help if he was a bit lighter too._

As if on cue, Jareth's unconscious for began to change. He shrank within Sarah's arms, changing rapidly. Sarah could no longer feel the leather and cloth of his clothes or his cool skin. Instead they were replaced by soft, silky feathers. Within minutes, the small barn owl rested in Sarah's arms, light and easily hide-able.

Loving magic with all her heart, Sarah carried the owl out of the room and up the stairs as fast as she could. When she reached the lobby, she grabbed her coat from a rack outside the door and wrapped him in it. Mercifully, her taxi chose that moment to arrive just outside the door and honk for her.

Sarah threw open the doors and bolted out in the rain, opened the door of the taxi and slammed it shut. She gave the driver her address without so much as glancing at him, and they took off for her home. Once they were a good five miles away from the hotel, Sarah opened her coat and gazed at the little owl laying there. He was still limp and unconscious. His eyes closed and the feathers on one of his wings looked crumpled. He was hurt. In this form, he was hardly the size of a small child. Instinctively, Sarah held him close to her, hoping he remained an owl until she got home. It would lead to curious questions from her driver.

Question after question after question exploded in Sarah's mind, each one needed an answer more importantly than the next one. Why was Jareth in the Aboveground? Why had he been strapped down to that chair? Why was he even in that hotel? Had Natasha known he was there? Did her mother know? Who were those woman she saw coming up the stairs? Had they done this to him? How had he been hurt?

But one question stuck in her head above all the rest of them put together. _What is going on?!_

**Ying-Fa: Did y'all like that? Okay, I'm having some technological difficulties with my computer so updates may be a bit further in between than they used to be. I still have a few chapters prewritten so I'll try my best to keep 'em coming. Thank you all for your support and keep reviewing to your hearts content.**


	9. A Misunderstanding

**Ying-Fa: Hey, my peeps! Thank you so much for all your reviews! My computer is still being poopy, but I managed to get it working well enough to update again. Please enjoy!**

The taxi drove hastily through the pouring rain. Thunder roared threateningly overhead and lightning flashed brightly through the dark sky. It reminded Sarah of the first time she'd ever met the Goblin King. It had been stormy then too and she felt just as confused and scared then as she did now. The small barn owl was still wrapped up in her coat and held close to her chest. The image of him in his human form, strapped down and drugged in the hotel her mother was staying at still haunted Sarah's mind.

In a surprisingly short amount of time, the taxi pulled into Sarah's house. "Here you are," said the driver.

"Thank you very much," said Sarah, putting the owl down and reaching into her purse to pull out some money. "Here. You can keep the change."

She scrambled out of the car, carrying her purse and owl-laden coat in her arms. As she left the car the driver looked out after her. His pale, pointed face grinned at her at her retreating back.

"Now things are getting interesting," he said. "Good girl, Miss Williams. I was afraid you'd break my heart. Glad to see that you didn't." Then he clicked his fingers and he and the taxi vanished.

Sarah clumsily unlocked the door left-handed and hurried inside. She pulled the wet coat off the owl and looked down at him. He still appeared to be unconscious. Without the slightest clue as to what to do with him, Sarah started to become overwhelmed with the nerves. Should she say something to her mother? No, she couldn't risk letting those other freaky women know about this. Where should she put him? Should she call an ambulance? No, she concluded again. She doubted that the doctors in her world would know what to do for him. What if he had some kind of allergy to medicine?

Sarah suddenly remembered the pull out bed she had in the couch in her guest room. It was a king sized bed (which seemed to be appropriate) and was quite comfortable, so perhaps he could sleep in there until he woke up and she could talk to him. Sarah made her way to the guest room and, resigned, she placed the owl on her own bed so that she could pull out the other one for him.

Sarah had put a lot of time and effort into her guest room. She had done everything she could and had spent a considerable amount on it to make it a place where guests didn't dread going. Once while visiting Irene's brother and his family over the summer vacation, Sarah had spent the entire week sleeping on their horrible pull out bed. It had been terribly uncomfortable. There was a bar underneath the thin mattress that had pressed into her back no matter where she turned and the springs in the mattress creaked and groaned with her every move. So, when she had been preparing her own room for visitors, she'd made sure to buy the most comfortable, non-spring mattress she could afford. She had even slept on it several times herself to make sure there were no bars that would press into anyone's back.

Once the bed was pulled out and the pillows arranged, Sarah fitted the warmest, and most comfortable spare blankest all around it. After all, this wasn't exactly a usual guest. All throughout her work, Sarah's mind kept going over the same unbelievable and terrifying aspect.

_The Goblin King is in my house. The Goblin King is in my house! The Goblin King is __**in my house!**_

When all was ready, Sarah went back into her room to fetch the owl and lay him down on it. To her horror she saw, not the owl, but Jareth himself lying asleep on her bed, his chest raising and falling steadily. She knew she should probably go, but her eyes seemed stuck and refused to move off of his beautiful body. He seemed so . . . peaceful. True, there was still something of a worried look on his face. His brow was furrowed and his mouth set in a thin line, but otherwise he looked quite at rest. Sarah's gaze moved up and down his body, lingering on his soft hair, his exposed chest, and those _devilish_ breeches. A wild and overwhelming desire to _touch_ him came over her, but forced it back with all her might.

Sarah tore her eyes from him and went over to the bathroom and stared hard into the mirror. Praying with all her heart that it would work this time, Sarah took a deep breath and said, "Hoggle, I need you."

And then, miraculously, mercifully, Hoggle's face appeared in her mirror. "Sarah!" he cried. "Boy, am I glad to see yer alright! You called so many times I was worried ya was hurt or something. Sorry I couldn't come. Something fishy's been going on lately."

"Fishy things are going on here too," said Sarah. Since she was desperate for answers, she said, "You go first, Hoggle. What's been going on at your end?"

"Well, for some reason, the connection between our world and yours was shut off for awhile. It's back now, but I don't know what happened to it," said Hoggle. "Then Jareth left the Labyrinth in a real hurry awhile ago and hasn't come back yet. Didymus told us that a couple of them goblins in the city said that was going to check something, but didn't say what."

Sarah braced herself. "Hoggle . . . he's here. The Goblin King is here at my house."

"HE'S WHAT!?" Hoggle cried. "What's he doing there!?"

Sarah briefly explained about the hotel and finding Jareth in the basement strapped down and gagged, then how she escaped with him and fled to her house. The more she talked, the further Hoggle's mouth dropped. When she'd finished, Hoggle looked just as terrified as she felt.

"S-strapped down, ya say?" said Hoggle, looking worried. "Sarah there weren't . . . were there any, er, weird kinda ladies in that place?"

Sarah blinked at him. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"I mean where there a bunch of ladies there?" Hoggle repeated. "They'll all be real pretty and kinda smooth-talkers."

"Well, yeah I guess," said Sarah, focusing on Natasha and the other women she'd seen rather than her mother. "What about them?"

"Oh no," groaned Hoggle. "No, no! Sarah, they were the Huntresses! I'm sure of it."

"What are the Huntresses?" said Sarah, startled.

"There a bunch of ladies from your world who kidnap Fae," Hoggle explained. "I don't know what they want with 'em, exactly, but I heard that if a Fae gets taken by one of them Huntresses, the next time they see them they're dead!"

"Dead?"

"Stone-cold," said Hoggle, seriously. "Sarah, Jareth's not . . . y'know . . . dead is he?"

"No, no," said Sarah quickly. "He's still alive."

"That's good," said Hoggle. "Not that I like him much as a person but I'll never get back into the Labyrinth if he dies. He needs to revoke the banishment on me and Ludo if we ever want to get back."

"Hoggle, I'm freaking out here!" said Sarah. "I don't know what to do for him. I don't even know what . . . um . . . his kind eat."

"Fae," Hoggle corrected her. "Jareth's a Fae, Sarah. And he eats what he wants to eat and doesn't eat what he don't want to eat. Simple as that just so long at there's no salt or nothing in it."

"Salt?" said Sarah, confused. "What does salt do?"

"It's a natural barrier to magic," said Hoggle. "If it get's on his skin or if he eats it or somethin', then he can't do magic until it's completely out of his system."

"No salt, got it," said Sarah. "Okay, is there anything else I need to know?"

"Yes," said Hoggle. "Make sure there's no iron around, got it? Iron is deadly poisonous to Fae. Make's their skin burn somethin' awful. Too much iron can kill 'em."

"No salt, no iron," Sarah recited. "Alright. Is that everything?"

"Everything off the top of my head," said Hoggle.

"Good," said Sarah. "I'll call you later when I'm sure he's alright. Take care, Hoggle."

"I'll see ya Sarah. I'll drop by yer house this evening, okay? And KEEP HIM AWAY from them Huntresses! They're somethin' mighty evil, I'll tell ya that now."

Hoggle disappeared from the mirror, leaving Sarah more worried and confused than ever. Hoggle had seemed to believe that Jareth had been taken by those women from the hotel, women with a reputation for killing Fae. This doesn't make sense, not an ounce of sense. Those women, the Ladies Club, couldn't be these _Huntresses_ that Hoggle had been talking about, could they? What about her mother? Was Linda in on this too? No, it was absurd. Her mother had never known about the Underground, had she?

Confused and anxious, Sarah went into the kitchen and started scurrying around for something that might look appetizing to a King from another world. She hurried around, reading labels thoroughly.

_Chicken soup,_ Sarah thought as she read the label._ Less sodium means no salt, good. Uh oh, 10% iron, bad. Okay, let's see. Um. Urgh! Sodium here, iron there, sodium here, iron there, isn't there ANYTHING that humans eat that doesn't have salt or iron in it!_

Before long, she was out of ideas. If he wanted something, she would just ask him for it. Otherwise, he would have to stick with water. Her faucet had a filter and she was certain that there was nothing in her water except water. With nothing else to take her mind off her nightmarish circumstance, Sarah went back into her room to see Jareth still lying there asleep.

He really didn't look too good. Perhaps she should wake him up. Once he was awake and saw that he was no longer strapped down to a chair, he might tell her what was going on. As her eyes scanned over his body once again, she noticed something she hadn't before. His shoulder was stuck out strangely. It seemed to be dislocated. But as she was reaching out to get a closer look, Jareth sat up and collided into her.

"Ahh!" Sarah cried out in surprise at the feel of Jareth's body up against hers. The feeling didn't last long however. Jareth pulled away from her instantly as if she had burned him and he pushed himself away from her with his good arm.

"It's okay," said Sarah hastily. "It's okay, Jareth, it's me."

It seemed to take him a second to recognize her. He was breathing very fast and his face was colorless. "S-Sarah?" he breathed.

"Yes," said Sarah, calmly. "It's okay. Really, it's okay now." She reached out for his shoulder again, but he pulled away from her again.

"Wh-where . . . am I?" he asked, looking around the room looking confused and bothered.

"You're at my house," said Sarah. "It's okay, I got you out of that place."

Jareth stopped looking around and fixed her with an incredulous look. "I'm at your _house_?" he said. "Why? Why am I here?"

Sarah felt rather taken aback by his hostility. "Well, I saw you in that chair in the basement of the hotel. I . . . I kinda freaked out and I . . . wanted to help you."

"Help me?" Jareth's eyes grew dark and he lowered them to the floor. "Is that so? Well, wasn't that kind of you."

Sarah started at him with disbelief and indignation. "You're not seriously telling me you _wanted_ to be there?"

"Of course not," snapped Jareth.

"Then what are you so hostile about?" said Sarah. When he didn't answer, she said, "Oh, forget it then! Here, let me look at your shoulder."

"DON'T!" yelled Jareth, pulling even further from her.

"But it might be dislocated," said Sarah, trying to be reasonable. "If we don't pop it back into place it'll only get worse."

"I . . . said . . . don't," said Jareth, angrily. "Just . . . just leave me be, Sarah."

"Oh knock it off," said Sarah, her patience growing thinner and thinner by the second. "Quit being so proud."

"It doesn't have to do with pride," hissed Jareth. "I just . . . I can't . . . I don't want . . . just . . . just don't touch me, Sarah. I'll be fine."

Sarah felt extremely annoyed on the verge of angry. Why was he being so stubborn with her? She only wanted to help him and he was being insufferably rude about it. "Jareth, please . . ." she began, but he cut her off.

"Why did you bring me here, Sarah?" he asked, almost miserably. "Couldn't bring yourself to kill a familiar face or did you just get cold feet at the last second?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sarah cried.

"It doesn't matter," he said, misery now etched on his face as he looked down at his injured shoulder. "I don't care anymore either way. Just please . . . please leave me alone for awhile, Sarah. Just grant me that."

Sarah didn't have a clue what he was talking about. By now she was so fed up with being confused that her temper had reached it's limit. She was in half a mind to tell him that this was _her_ house and he was currently sitting in _her _bed and if anyone had the right to leave it was _him._ Instead, she merely stood up.

"Whatever you like, _Your Majesty_," she snapped and she stormed out of the room, slamming the door pointedly behind her. It took a good fifty seconds for her fury to become swallowed by the hurt she felt deep in her stomach. She went into her living room and threw herself onto the couch. She grabbed a throw pillow and sandwiched her head between it and the cushion, trying hard to stop the flow of tears that were threatening to flood from behind her tightly closed eyelids.

**Ying-Fa: And so the difficulties commense! Please leave your reviews in the little box.**

**Nagini-chan:(sigh) it's so stimulating to be your pet.**


	10. A Chance to Talk

**Ying-Fa: Finally, I'm back. Sorry for the delay. Finals are OVER! Spring Break is HERE! I have over 100 REVIEWS! My computer is still being a PAIN! Still, I managed to make it back here! Please keep reading on. I hope that you'll enjoy it.**

"I TOLD you we shouldn't have left him alone!"

Linda shook her head patiently. "There's nothing that can be done about it now," she said calmly. "We'll just have to catch another one."

"But we had him right there!" said Wendy, the short-haired brunette that had helped secure Jareth. "I don't see how he could have gotten away!"

"Oh let it go," said Natasha, waving and elegant hand. "Let him go and brag to the rest of his Fae friends. Let him boast at being one of the few to escape us. Before long I'm sure he'll just wander back into our midst again anyway."

"But we're running _low!_" cried Joyce, the freckle-faced one. "What'll we do if we run out before we can get our hands on another Fae?"

"We should have waited," said Eveline, a curly-haired blonde that Sarah hadn't met. It was she who had shot Jareth. "We shouldn't be trying to convert the girl yet. We should have waited until supply was bountiful again."

"Sarah's more than ready now," said Linda. "Now's the time, I know it is. She's ready."

"But we're not," said Joyce. "I agree. We should have waited another . . . oh . . . twenty years or so before trying to get at her. She's still young and full of life."

"Which is why we've thought up this little 'around-the-world' idea," said Linda, with patience. "Let her see the sights with us, let her get to know and love us all and she'll be more than understanding when we break it down to her."

"Not to mention," said Natasha, her eyes sparkling mysteriously. "She's seen it. She knows about it. How else could you explain that little boy?"

"Yes," said Linda. "My daughter's ready, I know she is. Besides there's nothing she wouldn't do for her mama."

"Too true," said Natasha, fondly. "I'll look forward to the day she joins us."

"I'm still confused about that He-Fae," said Eveline, bitterly. "I shot him with one of our salt rounds and there was salt all around him when we left. How could he have gotten out? It's impossible!"

"There must have been a gap in the salt line," said Natasha. "It happens sometimes, you know that. Also, there could have been another who helped him. You know how Fae come and go like they do."

There was a slight pause while the women considered this. Finally, Wendy spoke up. "Lilith, are you sure your daughter didn't . . ."

"My daughter left in a cab long before that Fae disappeared," hissed Linda, her green eyes flashing dangerously at Wendy.

"But to her it might have just looked like a guy who'd been tied up," said Joyce, backing Wendy up fairly. "And I kinda doubt that she'd know how to save that boy without real knowledge. I'm just wondering . . ."

"We're not discussing it anymore, ladies," said Linda, crossly. "Sarah will be joining us soon and I want you to treat her nicely. I won't hear any nasty accusations about her when she's not even here yet. And Wendy, I've told you before to stop calling me by that name. It's Linda now."

"Just how did your beloved daughter take the news, by the way?" said Eveline, raising an eyebrow.

"I told her I was dying," said Linda. "So it wasn't like I was lying. Without that elixir we all will die! Still, she took it a little hard. We'd best give her some time. A few weeks, maybe, so that she can mull things over. I want her brought into this softly. She's the one who'll stand on the top of this group one day. I want her ready."

"As do we all," said Natasha. "We do so love Sarah, after all. She is, perhaps, the only real miracle this world has ever seen."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Sarah, ya . . . ya look awful!"

Sarah sat up to see Hoggle sitting on the armrest of the couch, looking extremely concerned about her. "What happened?" he asked. "Is somethin' wrong?"

"No, not really," said Sarah, wipping her eyes and sitting up. "I am just so . . . fed up with all this confusion and scary things and on top of it all Jareth's attitude!"

"Jareth's attitude, ya say? Well what did he do this time?" Hoggle asked.

Sarah sat up on the couch. She let herself silently cry out her fury and frustration at the whole situation and now felt much better, calmer, and her head clearer. She told Hoggle all about Jareth's behavior towards her once he woke up. When she finished, Hoggle nodded understandingly.

"I see," he said. "I thinks that he thinks you've gone and joined them Huntresses," said Hoggle, wisely.

"What?" said Sarah. "How can he think that? I don't even know who these people are!"

"Well, they're bad news in the Underground and especially in the Labyrinth," said Hoggle. "Like I told ya before, they kidnap Fae and return 'em dead. I don't know the details, but I'm sure Jareth does. But, even so, if he thinks yer with 'em, just let him cool off a bit before ya try talking to him again."

"So, they kidnap Fae," said Sarah. "Do you know why? Don't they take anything else?"

"Nope," said Hoggle. "Just Fae get taken, Sarah. I can't never think of a dwarf that got taken, or a goblin, or a beast, or any other creature. But that's actually understandable."

"Why is that?" Sarah asked.

"Well, dwarves and beasts and others aren't as powerful as Fae," said Sarah. "We're none too pretty either. Fae are the nicest and most powerful creatures the Underground has to offer. I guess if I was gonna take something, it would be them."

"But why is Jareth so mad at me?" said Sarah, a bit of the hurt returning. "I was only trying to help him and he threw it back in my face."

"Well, as I said, Jareth hates the Huntresses like nothing before," said Hoggle, seriously.

"Why?" asked Sarah.

Hoggle suddenly hesitated. He glanced around the room so as to make sure Jareth wasn't crouching down behind the couch before he leaned in closer to Sarah and started talking in a whisper.

"Well, I heard . . . Jareth had a girlfriend awhile back," he muttered. "Name was Yvaine. Real nice lady, I heard. Jareth liked her a lot. They was even gonna get married but . . ." Hoggle's voice got even quieter. "She got taken by the Huntresses. Jareth was real worried when she disappeared so suddenly. He thought that she'd left him or something like that. Now I think he'd have preferred it if she had left him.

" Instead, they finds her body a few days later. And she looked nothing like the other bodies the Huntresses have dumped back after their finished with them. Normally, the bodies were practically unharmed except for a cut or two in the right places. Instead, Yvaine's been cut up _everywhere_. She was all mutilated and cut up bad. Not only that, she was still a little alive. She lived just long enough to say goodbye to Jareth before she died. He's never been the same after that. I think he's been itching to get back at the Huntresses for what they'd done to Yvaine. At one point he even . . ."

"AAAAHHH!"

Both Sarah and Hoggle nearly jumped out of their skins at the sound of Jareth's loud scream from the other room.

"Gwah!" cried Hoggle. "Goodbye!"

"Wait a minute!" yelled Sarah, grabbing onto the dwarf. "You can't leave me here alone with him!"

"Yes, yes I can!" said Hoggle, pulling his arm out of her grasp. "I've already said too much! I shouldn't have told ya nothin' about Yvaine. I'm already banished from the Labyrinth, I don't need more trouble!" and with that, the dwarf vanished.

"Hog-_gle!_" Sarah growled after him. "You _coward!_" She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Well, fine then. I'm not a coward." She turned on her heel and went over to her room to see what Jareth had yelled about. But just as she reached for the doorknob she hesitated.

"Oh," she growled to herself. "_Get a grip!_" The she grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open.

Jareth was kneeling on the floor, panting. His injured shoulder was pressed up against the bedpost and Sarah could guess what had happened.

"Oh geez!" she cried, hurrying over to him. "You put your shoulder back into place _by yourself!?_ Are you nuts?"

"No . . . don't . . ." he murmured weakly, but Sarah had already sat down next to him and had pulled his shirt down over his shoulder to see if he'd done it right. The shoulder was back where it belonged. Apparently, he'd leaned into the bedpost until he'd managed to put it back. But as she looked over him, she saw a large patch of raw skin that resembled a second-degree burn behind his shoulder.

"What happened to you?" Sarah asked, looking at the burn with worry.

"What do you think?" Jareth said, irritably, pulling his shirt back into place. "It's a salt burn. Those oh so _lovely_ friends of yours shot some at me with those marvelously modern weapons."

"Who are you calling my friends?" said Sarah, sternly. If Jareth wanted a fight so badly, then she'd give it to him. "I barely know those women! And what do you mean 'modern weapons'? Are you talking about a gun?"

"If you say so," said Jareth, shrugging his good shoulder.

Sarah pondered this. She'd heard of bomb squads using water rounds to extinguish bombs without making them explode, but she'd never heard of a gun that shot salt before. "Well, whatever they did, I got you out of there so you should be a bit more grateful."

"Grateful?" said Jareth, crossly. "Please don't treat me like an idiot Sarah. The instant your mother asks it of you, you'll just give me right back to them."

"My mother would never say that," said Sarah, anger coming quickly. "She's only just met this Lady's Club or whatever they are a few months ago when she learned she was dying. She hardly knows anything about them."

"She does, does she?" said Jareth, sitting back down on the bed, cradling his injured arm. "Is that what she told you?"

"Of course it's what she told me," said Sarah. "My mother tells me the truth unlike _some_ people I know."

"Hm," said Jareth. His expression suddenly changed. He looked thoughtful as he looked Sarah up and down. "You . . . really don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" asked Sarah. She was still mad at him but it appeared like she was finally going to get some answers."

"Just who these . . . what did you call them? . . . Lady's Club women are," said Jareth, leaning back casually on the bed.

"Well, what are they?" demanded Sarah.

"Allow me to ask you a question first before I answer yours," said Jareth, calmly. "Just what did they tell you they were?"

Sarah hesitated, and then puffed herself up indignantly. "They're a group of women who are dying. Mom told me that they spend their last days doing things together."

"Dying?" said Jareth, looking cruelly amused. "Is that the excuse they're using? Pitiful. The only thing they are dying of is shame."

"What do you mean?" asked Sarah.

"I mean that none of those women have had so much as a sore throat in a very, very, very, _very_ long time," said Jareth. "Not since the first of them stumbled into the Underground and started kidnapping and killing my kind."

"Why?" Sarah asked. "Why would they . . . do that?"

Jareth hesitated. "Because they were, in their own words, _dying_," he said bitterly.

"I'm not sure I'm following you."

"They're getting old," said Jareth, and something very strange was happening to his mismatched eyes. They seemed to become even more violently blue and icy cold the more he spoke. "They were, and are, falling victim to the fate that awaits all humans in the Aboveground. To get old and to die is part of a human's nature and yet it is something they fear beyond anything else.

"My kind, the Fae, do not have such a fate. We do not grow any older once we reach a certain age. Unless we are killed or chose to die, we don't die. Of course there are sacrifices involved. Our fatal reaction to iron, for example and our magical weakness to salt are some of these sacrifices. We also have great difficulty in, and sometimes cannot, bring forth children. Still, there are many humans who would prefer our way of life to their own."

Sarah listened closely as Jareth spoke. She had never known much about Jareth's race and was finding this interesting, even if he was avoiding in answering her question. "But, Jareth, what did they want from you? Why did they take you like that?"

Jareth looked her in the eye for a split second before he sighed deeply. "You know the answer to that already," he said. "You saw what they wanted for yourself."

"I did?"

"Do you not remember?" asked Jareth, calmly. "It was only a few months ago. You came to me with a request. Your younger brother had been in an accident and you were afraid that he was going to die. So, at your request, I supplied you with something that could save him."

Sarah thought back to their last encounter and gasped. "That potion! That white stuff I gave to Toby. Is _that _what the Hunt . . . I mean, what those women wanted from you?"

But Jareth had heard her slip up. "You already know about the Huntresses?" he asked, going cold and hostile again.

Sarah sighed. "I asked Hoggle after I got you back here. He told me about them."

"Warty little turncoat," hissed Jareth, but then he took a deep breath to calm himself. "Well, whatever. Yes, that substance is what the Huntresses want from us."

"Oh," said Sarah. "And is that why they kill you? Because you won't give it to them? Geez! I can't be that important! Just give them the stupid stuff and make some more."

"We _can't_ make more," said Jareth, sternly.

"Well, what is it that's so important that you die to keep it safe?" Sarah asked, wondering what in the world it could possibly be.

Jareth groaned and got up from the bed. He walked over to Sarah's desk and found a sterling silver letter opener that Irene had given her for Christmas one year. "That substance is like nothing your world has ever, or should ever, see," he said. "The Huntresses want it because it keeps their greatest fear at bay."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Sarah asked, unnerved by the sight of him with the letter opener and wondering what he planned to do with it. "Jareth, come on, put that down."

Jareth looked around at her and grinned almost nastily at her. There was a flash of silver, and Jareth slashed the knife across his palm.

"Jareth!" Sarah cried. "Don't! What are you . . ?

But what Sarah saw next made her stop dead in her tracks. Something was pouring out of the gash in Jareth's hand. But . . . it wasn't right. It wasn't vibrant and red as she'd expected it to be. It was white . . . and swirled like clouds . . .

"Do you see now, Sarah?" Jareth asked in a hushed voice.

Sarah did see, and it made her feel sick.

"B-b-blood," she gasped. "That's stuff . . . _is your blood!_"

**Ying-Fa: Please review! (insert evil laughter)**


	11. A Masquerade

**Ying-Fa: Sorry for the wait. Okay, so I really wanted a song for this chapter, like I've done before but it took FOREVER to find one. Fortunately, thanks to some help from my dear Yang-chan, I found one that I liked very much. The only problem was, it wasn't in English. It was in Japanese. Thankfully, Yang-chan emailed me the English translation and that's what I used. But, sadly, there is no English version of the song I know of. Aside from my yammering, here's the next chapter.**

"Yes," said Jareth, staring at his own white blood as if in a trance. It trickled down his hand and wrist, leaving long streams of swirling white. "The blood of a Fae is a powerful thing. If a human drinks it, it can have astonishing effects on them. This is why no Fae who gets caught by the Huntresses lives to tell the tale . . . until me."

Sarah's legs suddenly felt very weak. They trembled beneath her, her knees buckling at the sight of Jareth's dripping white blood. She sat down on her bed and tried to remember how to breathe. "They . . . kill," she gasped. "Those . . . women . . . kill people? Oh, that's wrong. That's so, so wrong!"

"Exactly," said Jareth, darkly.

Sarah watched him for a few minutes before something occurred to her. "Toby!" she cried. "I . . . I gave your . . . what I gave to Toby was . . . your blood wasn't it?"

Jareth nodded.

"So then . . . what does that . . . mean?" Sarah asked, timidly.

"It means he's going to live a long and healthy life," said Jareth, calmly. "You told me he was in an accident, correct? Well, the blood worked to save him from his injuries and the magic will also keep him from illness and future injuries. He'll continue to grow and flourish just like any other child his age. Its effects will wear off steadily as he gets older. He will not behave unlike any other boy in your world and he will not draw anybody's attention."

"His grades are better than before," said Sarah, uncertainly. "And he's better at sports."

"That is because the magic is still in full effect," said Jareth. "But that won't last too long. In a few years he'll return to normal and his smarts and talents will be as they once were."

"I . . . see," said Sarah, dully. "So he's not . . . gonna be a Fae or anything?"

"No," said Jareth. "He only had a small dose of it to save him from dying. Most of its power was used to keep him alive. This increase in abilities is just what's left of it working to maintain and protect his life."

"That's good," said Sarah. She felt calmer now, but the sight of Jareth's streaming blood was bothering her. "Jareth can you . . . heal your cut or do you need help?"

Jareth's attention was brought back to his cut hand as though he'd forgotten all about it. "Oh, no I cannot heal it myself. This cursed salt burn," he glared at his shoulder, "is keeping my magic at bay. Until it heals on its own, my skills will be considerably less profound."

"Well then, wait here," said Sarah, getting up and running into the bathroom and pulling out a first aid kit. After making sure that nothing had iron in it, she went back and started to clean Jareth's cut. She wiped up the blood with trembling fingers and wrapped his hand in a bandage.

Jareth said nothing as he watched her work. When he saw her throw the paper towel she'd used to clean up his blood into a wastebasket by her bed, he seemed less tense.

"There," said Sarah, exhaling when she'd finished wrapping his hand. "Is that alright?"

Jareth nodded, his eyes on the hand she'd bandaged for him.

"What about your shoulder?" Sarah asked. "Does it hurt? Do you want me to put something on the burn?"

"No," said Jareth, quietly. "I'm . . . quite alright, thank you. The salt burn will take time, but it will heal on its own and my shoulder is much better."

"I'm glad," said Sarah but then she realized what she said and looked down at the ground, feeling awkward. There was a long pause in which the two of them didn't speak at all. The silence was so heavy and Sarah wished she could say something more but there didn't seem to be anything to say at all. Finally the silence was broken.

"I'm sorry, Sarah," said Jareth softly.

"What?"

"The instant I awoke I accused you," he said, still looking at his bandaged hand. "You risked a lot to get me out of there and the moment I awoke I was suspicious and cold towards you. The last thing I remembered was being strapped down in their lair as they prepared me for the end of my life, then I woke again and saw you leaning over me and I . . . didn't think. You brought me to your home and kindly bestowed your hospitality to me and I was . . . cruel in return. So, I apologize. I can only hope you can forgive me."

Sarah stared at him in bewilderment. Had hell frozen over? Where pigs sprouting wings? But as Sarah looked into his mismatched and melancholy eyes, she knew it wasn't a lie. He was genuinely sorry for his behavior towards her. And if he was truly sorry, it was only polite to be just as sincere back to him.

"It's . . . okay," said Sarah, avoiding looking into his eyes and instead focused on his forehead. "I understand where you were coming from and . . . I'm sorry for getting mad."

"There's nothing you need to be sorry for," said Jareth, bowing his head to her. "And, unless I'm mistaken, I'm taking up your chambers. Is there, perhaps, somewhere else I can rest until morning? I'm still rather unwell and I would greatly appreciate the chance to recover somewhat before you cast me out."

Sarah started at that. "There'll be no casting," she insisted heatedly. "There's . . . a bed in the guest room you can use. I . . . hope it's comfortable enough for you. It's probably not what you're used to but . . . even so, I hope it's good enough for you."

Jareth gave her a rather surprised look, then smiled softly. "I'm sure it'll be just fine, Sarah. I appreciate your hospitality, considering who I am."

Not wanting to answer to that, she beckoned him to follow her and led him to the guest room where the pull-out bed was waiting for him. Jareth looked it over carefully, then sat down on the bed, apparently testing it out. When Sarah saw a small smile of approval curl on his lips, she turned to leave. But then she turned around almost at once.

"J-Jareth?" she said.

"Yes?" Jareth said, looking up at her.

There was a pause in which Sarah tried with all her might to ask the question that was burning on her tongue. Unfortunately, the words jumbled in her anxiety and instead of asking her question, she just said, "G-good night, Jareth."

Jareth blinked at her, then smiled and nodded. "Good night," he murmured.

As Sarah turned and shut the door, Jareth sighed and removed his boots and shirt. He then pulled down the covers on the bed and slid underneath them. "It's alright, Sarah," he said, lying back against the pillow. "I don't think your quite ready to hear the answer to that question just yet."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah hurried back into her room and sandwiched her head between her pillow and her mattress. _I CAN'T ASK HIM!_ She thought miserably. _Oh, how on earth am I supposed to ask him about whether or not my mother is apart of this whole . . . this whole Fae-killing business!? I don't even know if I can trust him or not._

Sarah took her head out from under her pillow and flopped her head down onto it, but then sat bolt upright. Her pillow still smelled like him from when he'd been lying on it. It was a sweet scent, but definately masculine. It was like a very strange mix between citrus and damp wood after a rainstorm. But what had startled her was how much she'd _liked_ the smell. Not good. Not good at all! It was bad. It was all so very bad.

Her mother was hanging out with a group of people who killed Fae as part of their daily beauty routine! Of all the things that Jareth had told her that was the one she was most sure was true. Her mother's involvement was questionable. Her mother had only just joined these women a few months ago when she'd gotten cancer. They were trying to coax her into going Fae hunting with them instead of dying and they wanted Sarah a part of it too. Had they somehow learned that Sarah'd been Underground before? Had they seen the articles about Toby and had pieced it together? That must have been what Jareth's three rules were about. It was about letting her heal Toby, but under circumstances in which the, she cringed, _Huntresses_ wouldn't find him and kill him as they had his girlfriend.

Sarah's insides squirmed as she recalled Hoggle's words. _Jareth had a girlfriend. Name was Yvaine. He liked her a lot. He'd thought she left him or something like that. They were even gonna get married._

He'd had a fiancée. He'd been engaged once. Well, of _course_ he had, she thought bitterly. She wouldn't have put it past him to have had hundreds, heck _thousands_, of girlfriends and lovers. That girl, Yvaine, probably wasn't even his first fiancée either. She was just the first who had died on him. Sarah turned her pillow over so as to lay down on the side that did not smell like Jareth and huffed angrily. She wouldn't have put it past Jareth to be a womanizer. What woman, other than her, could refuse him? Who could resist his handsome face, his sarcastic demeanor, his beautiful, hypnotic voice . . .

_Oh stop it,_ Sarah chided herself. There was no point in reminding herself (again) of how gorgeous he was. And to think he was just down the hall, sleeping on her pull-out bed! There was still a lot to discuss. Her mother was in question and there was still the part about Jareth not trusting Sarah and Sarah not trusting Jareth. With a very heavy sigh she glanced at the clock. The rest the day had disappeared completely, but Sarah had barely noticed due to the storm still raging outside. The clock told her it was 11:21, but it felt like it was already 3 in the morning. Sighing, she changed into her pajamas and climbed under her Jareth-smelling blanket and fell asleep breathing in his heavy, intoxicating scent . . .

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

_Two enormous black and gold doors opened wide to reveal an immense ballroom with glistening marble pillars, stone balconies, and a highly polished marble floor that reflected the dancing couples that were spinning elegantly around it. Sarah stared around at the figures, stepping carefully into the room, lifting her many skirts and balancing on elegant black shoes. All of the dancers were wearing black and each had a different, disfigured mask adorning their face. _

_The men wore lose black shirts and jet black breeches and boots, where others wore crisp black suits and shiny black shoes that were just as reflective as the marble floor on which they spun with their partners. The women also wore black. Their beautiful gowns of velvet or silk swirled and spun with every move, their elaborate hairstyles held perfectly in place. The sight would have been lovely if it hadn't been for the masks. They were twisted and deformed. Some had snarling snouts, others had beak-like noses and razor sharp teeth. There were masks with horns and some with fangs, some that covered the entire face and ones that only went partway._

_Sarah was wearing a mask herself. A half-mask that was covered in shimmering beads was hanging perfectly on her face, hiding most of her from view. Her ball gown was entirely black with matching gloves and choker. Her hair fell in ebony cascades down her back and a single black rose was fitted behind her ear._

_**Hi, miss Alice**_

_**What kind of dreams do you see**_

_**Behind your eyes of glass**_

_**Do they fascinate you?**_

Where am I?_ she wondered aloud. But a second later, she saw a sparkle of glitter amongst the black-adorned crowd. Her heart leaped. She knew who it was. Sarah glided through the crowd, searching for the only person in the crowd of strangers she knew._

_Music suddenly erupted. It wasn't the soft, gentle song that she'd heard while in the crystal back in the Labyrinth. This tune was rich, deep and haunting. She looked up to see a vast pipe organ at the far end of the large ballroom. A man was sitting at it and playing with elegant skill. Standing beside the organ was the only person in the entire ball not wearing black. A woman in a blood red gown and even redder hair was singing along with the haunting tune of the organ. Her ruby lips were open wide as she sang impressively low and impossibly high notes._

_Sarah saw it again. The sparkling flash that indicated that the one she sought was with her here, mixed in with the crowd of masked dancers. Sarah moved carefully through them, feeling guilty for disturbing the perfect sway of the dancers. But they seemed to take no notice of her, intent on continuing with the waltz as if there wasn't a young woman from another world wandering in their midst._

_**Again**_

_**My heart is torn**_

_**And bleeding**_

_**I mend it but**_

_**My memories**_

_**Pierce the openings**_

_Then, out of nowhere, there he was. There was no mistaking him, even the horned mask he wore couldn't hide who he was. That aristocratic face, that wild hair, and that regal poise could only belong to the Goblin King. He wore a suit almost identical to the one he'd worn in the dream she'd had in the Labyrinth, only instead of midnight blue it was, you guessed it, black. Jareth maneuvered carefully through the dancers just as she was, his mismatched eyes sweeping over the crowds as if searching for something. Perhaps he was looking for her, Sarah wondered, but she had the feeling that she wasn't the one on Jareth's mind at the moment. Here, in this midnight masquerade, he was a guest just like she was, not the host. But if Jareth was not the host, who was?_

_Sarah tried to reach him, but he was quickly swallowed in the crowd of dancers. Sarah was starting to get a very strong feeling of déjà vu, as she made her way through the crowd, searching for Jareth. She needed to find him. She was disorientated and confused and needed a familiar face, even if it was Jareth's face. Just as yet another black-adorned couple swirled passed her did Sarah find herself face-to-face with Jareth. He stared at her through his mask. Sarah could feel those eyes staring at her, trying to see past her own mask to see the face within. Sarah bowed her head to him slightly, half in a polite greeting way and half to hide her face from him further. Whether Jareth was fooled or not, she couldn't tell. Then his mouth curled into a smile, and he held out his hand to her. Despite her uncertainty and fear, Sarah lifted her own hand, hesitated, and then placed it in his._

_**Hi miss Alice**_

_**To Whom**_

_**Are you throwing love to**_

_**With your fruit-like lips?**_

_**Does it make you sad?**_

_For the second time in her life, Sarah danced with the Goblin King. Without removing their masks, they spun around the ballroom, swaying along with the other dancers. They fit so well among the rest. Sarah's feet didn't slip up once, even though she didn't know the dance. Though they spun and stepped along with the rest, Sarah felt completely at peace and not at all dizzy. It was safe in Jareth's arms and he seemed to be just as secure as she was as he held her. The music from the organ grew faster, the dance picked up speed as well, the crimson diva sang louder with the increased tempo. Sarah was soon spinning wildly through an array of black and haunting music. If it weren't for Jareth's arms still guiding her, she was sure she'd be lost in the mass of darkness._

_The music came to an abrupt halt just as it had gotten to be almost too much to handle. She pulled Jareth to her and buried her face in the silk ruffles of his black shirt, trying to focus her eyes and catch her breath. Jareth was holding onto her a little tighter than he probably need to as well, one hand at her back and the other in her long hair._

_**The heat of my tongue**_

_**The let me speak**_

_**Has already cooled**_

_Then, Jareth reached up and tore his mask away from his face, revealing his glorious features for the world to see, his cheeks slightly flushed from the speed of their dancing. Raising his hand slowly and carefully, as if trying not to frighten her, Jareth took hold of her own mask and slowly pulled it off. For awhile they just stood there, gazing at each other in wonder, as if unsure if the other was really there._

_"Sarah."_

_"Jareth."_

_"Oh, please," said a new voice. One the echoed throughout the hall. One that was accented and sophisticated. "Don't stop on my account."_

_Jareth tore his eyes away from Sarah's face to look over at the organ. Sarah followed his gaze and saw that the organist had risen from his bench, standing beside the diva. He reached up and pulled off his crow-shaped mask to reveal chocolate brown eyes and a pale, thin face. A face she __**remembered**__._

_**And I can't sing**_

_**Song of love**_

_**Anymore **_

_"Don't be alarmed," said the organist, clapping his hands. The sound echoed throughout the now silent hall like thunder. At once, hall was filled with shadows and an eerie red light. The dancers around then started to change shape. They were no longer proper and beautiful, but grotesque, winged creatures with fangs, forked tongues and flashing eyes._

_"For you see," said the organist, as the crowd of monsters encircled the pair of them. "There's nothing to fear, but fear itself . . . and me."_

_The monsters flapped their bat-like wings, causing Sarah and Jareth to become consumed in a great wind that whipped at their clothes and slapped at their faces. Sarah cried out in terror, clinging onto the only one who remained the same, the one with whom she was safe . . ._

_Jareth, however, did not appear afraid. He didn't look at all afraid. He looked angry. "Sarah," he cried, grasping her shoulders and looking directly into her eyes. "Wake up. It's time to wake up now, Sarah. Sarah, you must wake up!"_

_**Still you do not answer**_

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah sat bolt upright in her bed. Her face was drenched in cold sweat and her entire body was shaking. In the guest room across the hall, Jareth did the same.

**Lyrics translated from "Still Doll" by Kanon Wakeshima**


	12. A Dilemma

**Ying-Fa: Thank you all SO MUCH for all those reviews! I'm so please that you're all enjoying my story so much. Well, there's a lot to cover. I'm sorry it's taking so long to update, but my computer is now on the rocks. The computer doctor is going to have to look at it soon and so my internet access is limited. Regardless, thanks and here's the next chapter.**

Sarah sat in bed for a few minutes, trying to gather her thoughts. She'd never had a dream as vivid and strange as that before in her life. The only thing that came close was the dream she'd had after eating Jareth's enchanted peach in the Labyrinth. But Jareth hadn't instigated this dream, she was certain of that. Instead it had been that man, the organist, she was sure of it. A man she _knew_.

Then, from across the hall, she heard Jareth curse loudly in anger.

"CASSIUS!" he roared. "You interfering vermin of a Fae!"

At the sound of Jareth's shout, Sarah jumped out of bed, forgetting that she still in her pajamas and hurried into his room. "Are you alright in here?" she cried once she'd gotten the door open.

She had been so on edge and unnerved by the dream that she'd completely forgotten who she was dealing with and the benefits of remembering to knock. Jareth was sitting up in her guest bed, his blanket lowered to reveal a perfectly sculpted, muscled chest. His blond hair was tousled from sleep, but still elegant and fell into his eyes in a way that made him look sharp and quiet desirable. His eyes had been angry when she came in, but they cooled when he saw it was her.

"I should be asking you that," he said calmly. "Are you alright, Sarah?"

"Y-yes," said Sarah, confused and trying hard not to stare at him. It suddenly occurred to her that she was in her comfy sweatshirt was torn and fraying at the sleeves and her pajama bottoms were a size too big and that she commonly got seriously bad cases of bed head. As Jareth lowered his gaze to take a deep breath, Sarah quickly hitched her bottoms higher on her hips and ran her fingers hastily through her hair.

"That's good," said Jareth, looking back up at her and causing her to stop trying to straighten out her hair. "Such dreams as that can sometimes have nasty after affects."

"Dream?" said Sarah, and then she gasped. "You . . . were there, weren't you? Did we just . . . have the same dream?"

"Yes," said Jareth, looking bitter. "It was the work of a particularly vindictive and somewhat dangerous Fae."

"The organist," said Sarah and Jareth nodded. "Jareth, who was he? Who is that man . . . or Fae . . . or whatever?"

"His name is Cassius," said Jareth. "He lives in an estate several miles away from the Labyrinth. His powers are among some of the most astonishing and dangerous in the Underground."

"Powers?" said Sarah, coming over and sitting down next to him. "What kind of powers?"

"Cassius is a master of dreams," Jareth explained. "Or, more specifically, he's a master of nightmares."

"Nightmares?"

"Yes," said Jareth, darkly. "Cassius has the power to see into the minds of others and take various things from them. Thoughts, emotions, fears, feelings, hopes, and desires and the like. He takes them and uses them to create vision unlike anything your own mind can conjure. One simple thought is enough for him to create a dream so vivid and lifelike that, if overdone, you may never awaken."

Sarah blinked. "R-really? Wh-what does he want with you and I? Why is he giving us these dreams?"

Jareth rolled his eyes. "It's little more than sport to him, Sarah," he said, irritably. "Taking your greatest fears and mixing them with other thoughts and seeing your reaction to the situation is his idea of fun. But don't get me wrong. He's extraordinarily careful with his abilities. He hasn't caused a single death yet. He just likes giving Abovegrounders nightmares just to see the looks on their faces."

Sarah huffed indignantly. "That's horrible!" she said. "What kind of person goes around scaring people for fun? Still, what did he want with us?"

Jareth hesitated for a moment. "I've . . . known Cassius for a long time. He was the one who taught me everything I know about dreams. I'm sure you haven't forgotten my present to you during your time in the Labyrinth?"

Sarah remembered only too well. She nodded.

"That dream was created using the skills that Cassius taught me," said Jareth. "I'm sure you saw various similarities in the dream we just experienced. Before I fell asleep a couple of hours ago, I tried to contact him through my dreams to see if he would help our situation. Sadly, his response was the nightmare. It's his way of saying 'clean up your own mess'."

"Well that's polite," said Sarah, indignantly. "Why'd he have to drag me into it?"

"That's where I'm having difficulty in understanding," said Jareth, looking over at her. "Visions like that can only be created through contact with a magical object. My peach, for example. Once you bit into it then your subconscious mind was temporarily submitted for my disposal."

Sarah thought for a moment then gasped. "Chap Stick!" she said.

"I beg your pardon?" said Jareth, rising and eyebrow.

"Chap Stick," Sarah repeated. "That man, Cassius, I met him just outside the diner where I work. I'd dropped my purse and spilled all my stuff and he came over and handed me my Chap Stick. I've been putting it on my lips several times since then! Oh," Sarah shook her head miserably. "I can't believe that! I've been putting enchanted Chap Stick on my lips and now I'm susceptible to a loony who likes giving people nightmares!"

Jareth laughed. "Loony? Haven't heard that one yet. So, he came to your workplace, did he? That's strange. Cassius is extraordinarily careful in his ventures Aboveground. He rarely makes contact with people in his true form. He sometimes visits them in the form of a crow. He scared the living daylights out of a poet quite a few years ago. What was his name? Pawn? Pope? Poe? Yes, I think it was Poe. Anyway, he uses extreme care in avoiding the Huntresses."

At the mention of the Huntresses, the atmosphere in the room changed drastically. The two of them had been on mutual ground, united temporarily against Cassius, but now the tension and distrust was back. Sarah suddenly realized that she was sitting a bit closer to Jareth then she probably needed to be, her hand millimeters away from touching his. Sarah quickly scooted a bit further from him and folded her hands in her lap. Jareth didn't fail to notice this and he frowned slightly. Not as if he was annoyed, but as if he was . . . sad. Not wanting to dwell on it, Sarah slid off his bed and stood up.

"Ah, well," she mumbled, uncomfortably. "I was just . . . I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"And I wanted the same for you," said Jareth, quietly.

Sarah was grateful it was dark. She didn't want to be caught blushing in front of him. "Okay, well . . . um . . . I'll . . . goodnight, Jareth."

Jareth started to say something, but Sarah turned and fled the room before he got the chance. He sighed and fell back onto his pillow. "Goodnight, Sarah," he whispered.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The next morning, Jareth awoke slowly. His shoulder still ached painfully and he still felt considerably weak. He could hear running water coming from somewhere and thought that the storm from last night might still be going on until he opened his eyes and saw the sunlight streaming in through the window. The then realized the sounds must be coming from inside the house and he figured Sarah must be bathing somewhere. Considering this, Jareth thought it best to lay still for a bit longer, at least until Sarah had finished.

Jareth reached up and rubbed his face with his hand. He had handled things terribly with Sarah and he knew it. When he'd awoken and saw her sitting beside him, he'd been confused and somewhat outraged. After he'd seen her talking to those vile women, he'd gone and assumed that she'd already become one of them. He'd been harsh with her and she'd taken his offensive tone quite to heart and had clearly been angry and hurt by his attitude. Soon after that, it had become obvious that she'd tried to help him out of the immense goodness of her heart and after the way he'd treated her, she'd come to somewhat regret her actions.

Turning over on his side, Jareth let his breath out in a rush. He'd tried to contact Cassius again through his dreams after Sarah had left him alone to return to bed last night after the dream they'd shared. Cassius's reply had been the same, though this time it did not involve Sarah. Cassius wasn't going to do anything to help him, not this time. Jareth supposed he shouldn't have expected anything else. Cassius had never wanted anything to do with anything that involved the Huntresses or Sarah. But why did he seem so interested in Sarah now? What had changed?

The sound of water suddenly stopped and Jareth turned over onto his back and closed his eyes, feigning sleep. He had a feeling Sarah probably still wasn't up for a confrontation with him just yet. He'd be patient. He owed her that. Several minutes later, Jareth heard his door creak open. He kept completely still, knowing that Sarah must be checking in on him. A minute or two passed, then the door creaked shut again.

After a few minutes longer of pondering and trying to figure out what on earth he was going to do about Sarah, he heard her voice talking in the other room. His curiosity peaked. Who would she be talking to? Throwing off his covers and pulling his shirt back on, Jareth left his room. He found Sarah standing in her living room, talking into a strange device she was holding up to her ear. Jareth remembered one of his goblins, Rocksplurt or something like that, talking about Aboveground communication devices called 'telephones'. That was what this object must be.

"No, there's nothing wrong," Sarah said into the phone. Her back was to him so she didn't know he was there. "I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. Yeah, I don't want to be coughing all over the food. So, you will cover for me right? Phew! Thank you, Trish. This really means a lot. Uh huh. Thanks. Oh, no, that's okay. I've got enough chicken soup to last me a lifetime. There's no need to come over. Yup. Thanks. Okay, bye."

Sarah put the 'phone' down, and let out a slow breath. Not wanting to startle her too much, he cleared his throat slightly to let her know he was behind her. Regardless, Sarah jumped a foot in the air and spun around.

"Jareth!" she gasped. "Oh, my. You . . . you startled me. You're . . . awake," she added, rather lamely.

Jareth put on what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Yes, I am," he said. "I'm sorry I frightened you. It wasn't intentional, I swear."

"Oh, it's okay," said Sarah, smiling as if she was embarrassed. Jareth noticed that she looked a bit tired. Her face seemed drawn and her eyes were slightly red.

"Sarah," he said, carefully. "Are you alright?"

"Hm?"

"You just look . . . rather tired."

"Oh," said Sarah, now looking quite embarrassed. "Well, that . . . um, nightmare or . . . whatever it was, freaked me out a lot and I . . . um . . . I was . . ."

"You haven't slept since you awoke late last night?" said Jareth, stricken.

"Well, um, no," said Sarah, lamely.

Jareth shook his head, an odd half-smile on his face. "Sarah, you needn't fear Cassius. I'm sure in telling you that he will not meddle in your dreams again. It is safe to sleep."

"Oh, okay," said Sarah. "I . . . didn't know that."

Jareth laughed slightly. After a somewhat awkward pause, Sarah hurriedly offered to make him something to eat. Upon realizing that he was, indeed, quite famished he agreed. He wanted to restore faith in her, and by letting her prepare a meal for him seemed a good thing. Refusing her request would make her think that _he_ thought she would poison him or something horrible like that.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah was stunned that Jareth had actually allowed her to make him some food. She had been sure he'd refuse, thinking she'd poison him or something horrible like that. She went into the kitchen and hurriedly made a few extra eggs and bacon for Jareth in addition to what she'd been making for herself. It felt good to cook. She'd always been pretty good at it and it helped her think clearer for some reason.

So far, Jareth seemed quite repentant of his behavior towards her yesterday when he woke up and found himself in her house. Well, he ought to be but he also had had the right to be confused and angry as well. Still, there was a wall between them that had always been there, even before this little fiasco. A wall that had been there since the very day they met. The wall had lowered somewhat when Jareth had helped Toby, but then it had rebuilt itself. Then there was the risky business with her mother.

Jareth had thanked her politely for the food and seemed to make sure that she saw him eating it. Relaxing slightly, Sarah ate her own breakfast in silence. Once they were both finished, Jareth stopped her before she could escape into the kitchen to wash the dishes.

"There are things that need discussing, you know," he said.

Feeling somehow defeated, Sarah sat down heavily. "Yeah," she said.

"I have a feeling you are the one with the most questions," said Jareth. "So, you may go first if you like."

"Thank you," said Sarah. She took a moment to make sure she worded her question right. "How did . . . the Huntresses . . . get you?"

Jareth hesitated. "I was at that hotel when they caught me," he said.

"Really?" Sarah asked. "What were you doing there?"

"I . . . heard you summon me awhile ago," he said. "I was concerned when I wasn't able to reach you. I went to see you for myself and . . . I saw you with them and I . . . jumped to conclusions. But as I took off for the Underground again, I was attacked."

Sarah nodded. "I understand," she said. "So, you weren't the one who closed the connection."

"No," said Jareth. "If I had to wager a guess, that was probably Cassius. He seems to have taken a particular interest in my current actions and since they involved helping you with your brother, he's kept an eye on you as well."

"What does he . . . want with me?" Sarah asked, nervously.

Jareth gave a small laugh. "Nothing malicious, of that I'm sure," he said. "I'm willing to bet his wife wouldn't like that very much."

"Wife?" said Sarah, startled. "He's . . . he's _married?_"

"Yes," said Jareth, grinning. "For quite some time now and their antics are embarrassing to say the least."

"Oh," said Sarah, pondering as to what kind of woman would marry a master of nightmares.

"Sarah," said Jareth, now quite serious. "What do you plan to do about your mother?"

They'd reached it. The topic that needed the most discussing and yet she didn't want to hear a word of it. Sarah's mother and what she had to do about all this Huntress business. "I . . . I have to let her in on who they are," she said. "I need to tell my mother just what these women do. I'll need you to back me up though, Jareth, because she can be pretty practical when . . ."

"But what if your mother already knows?" said Jareth, sternly.

"I know what you're implying and you're wrong," Sarah insisted. "My mother only just met these women. She doesn't have any idea what they are doing to you and your kind. I have to stop her before she . . . she starts drinking Fae blood as part of her daily beauty routine."

"What if I told you if it already is?" Jareth muttered, looking deep into her eyes.

"I'm telling you that it's not," said Sarah, insistently. "My mother doesn't keep secrets from me. True, we parted ways for a very long time when I was younger but she would never, ever lie to me. I'm certain that she hasn't started getting involved with these women yet. I know she hasn't. She's ill and they're trying to coax her into becoming one of them. That can't happen. It can't. I won't let it."

Jareth lowered his eyes to his plate, looking as if it was taking all the effort he had to not raise his voice and get angry with her. He rested his lips on his interlocked fingers, took several deep breaths, his eyes closed. After a moment, he looked back up at her, his face set.

"There's a way to find out," he said softly.

**Ying-Fa: Finally, chapstick-picking-up-mysterious-dark-crow-scary-guy has a name! And Jareth has a way of proving Linda's involvment! What'll happen next? . . . I dunno.**

**Nagini-chan: You liar, of course you know. You're just not saying.**

**Ying-Fa: Duh! Leave your reviews and I'll be back as soon as my crappy computer will let me!**


	13. A Test for Linda

**Ying-Fa: . . . So far behind . . . I only have one other chapter completed after this one. But on the bright side, one of my other stories just recieved its 300th review! I've never had that many before! I'm so happy. Please enjoy.**

Sarah waited anxiously at the edge of the street, waiting for her mother's Porsche to come along the street toward her. Sarah and Linda were meeting at the new Starbucks in town. Sarah hadn't dared to take her mother to the diner for coffee, for fear of confronting her boss and Ernie. Linda had been delighted by Sarah's calling her only the next day after their argument at the hotel and said she'd be over within the hour.

Pacing slightly and clutching her coat to her, even though it was a fairly nice April day, Sarah wondered yet again just what exactly her goal in inviting her mother here today was. After speaking to Jareth that morning, Sarah still wondered what her motivation was. Jareth seemed sure that her mother was among those who had killed his fiancée (though Sarah hadn't dared mention that she knew about that) and had tried to kill him too. But Sarah had stood in her mother's defense. There was no possible way for Linda to be involved. Her mother wouldn't lie to her. If Linda told her that she had joined this club to enjoy what remained of her life, then Sarah was certain she was telling the truth.

But then Jareth had told her a way to tell if her mother had tasted Fae blood before. "The longer a human lives off of the magic in our blood, it has an effect on them," he'd said. "Certain aspects of their humanity will become lost to them. Their sense of touch will be dulled. They will no longer be able to tell the difference between hot and cold. It'll be no different to them. Also, their sense of taste becomes dulled as well. They can no longer recognize any difference between sweet, bitter, and the rest."

Sarah suddenly felt very edgy. After that conversation, she'd waited until Jareth had gone back into the guest room and had fallen asleep. Once he had, she called her mother and set up this meeting with her. Sarah wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do here. Was she really going to put Jareth's theory to the test? Was she going to trick her own mother?

But then again, Jareth was an issue as well. She was scared of him and there was still very little trust between them, still she couldn't bear to see anything happen to him. She knew him, though it wasn't a very deep connection, and it would be a blow to her heart if something horrible happened to him. She considered herself still in his debt for what he'd done for Toby. He was a major part of the Underground and the Labyrinth and she feared what would become of the Labyrinth and the friends she'd made who lived there if their king died. And, almost against her will, she felt for him. It was strange and awkward and almost heartbreaking in itself, but a piece of her heart cared for Jareth and if he died, that bit of her would die as well.

Sarah started when she saw her mother's Porsche appear around the corner. _Don't freak out_, she thought stubbornly. _Don't act like anything is wrong. This is just an outing and we're just going to talk over hot drinks. That's all. Come on Sarah. Time to put your acting skills to the test. Time to see if I'm as good an actress as she is._

The Porsche parked right next to her own, old Ford and Linda stepped out of it. "Sarah!" she cried, beaming. "I was so glad to get your call."

"Hi Mom," said Sarah, stepping forward into her mother's embrace. "Look, I'm really sorry about the way I stormed out on you yesterday. It was just . . . a lot to take in. There's still a lot to talk about and I wanna do it in an environment where I'm most comfortable."

"Oh, that's just fine, sweetie," said Linda. "I understand. It was wrong of me to spring that on you. Don't worry about a thing, Sarah. I'm happy to sit down and have a simple conversation with you here."

"Thanks," said Sarah. "So, let's go inside, okay?"

"Absolutely."

The two women walked into the café together. There weren't very many people inside. A trio of gossiping college girls and a man hidden behind the newspaper were the only ones in there at the moment.

"You get us a table," Sarah told Linda. "I'll get our orders."

"That's sweet of you, dear," said Linda and she handed Sarah some money. "I'll take an iced tea."

"Alright," said Sarah, beaming. Linda walked away to find them a table. Once the older woman in front of Sarah had moved away, the smiling teenager behind the register asked Sarah what she'd like. Sarah gave her order to the girl then paid for the drinks. She turned to see her mother sitting with her legs crossed in a very ladylike way at the far end of the café. Sarah walked over and sat down at the other end of the small, round table.

"So," said Linda, once Sarah had settled. "What did you want to talk about? You sounded kinda serious on the phone."

"Oh, well," said Sarah, uneasily. "I'd like to talk more about this whole trip that you want me to come on and, well, various other things that need discussing."

"Of course," said Linda, and she sighed slightly. "Well, like I said before, I didn't want to bring up my illness while you made the decision."

"Just . . . what is it, exactly," said Sarah, timidly.

"Cancer," said Linda, hollowly. "It's breast cancer to be more specific."

"You don't look like you've had any kind of treatment," said Sarah, carefully.

Linda laughed humorlessly. "Seriously, Sarah, do I look like the kind of woman who'd take things like chemotherapy? No, when I got the news I just figured 'What the hell? If I'm dead, I'm dead.' Why continue to live in misery when you can die in bliss? So, rather than letting myself rot in some hospital, I joined the Ladies Club and I've enjoyed it ever since."

"I'm . . . glad that you have friends," said Sarah. "But, Mom, you should have taken some kind of treatment. Don't you want to live?"

"Sweetie, I've had a long life," said Linda, waving her hand. "I'm gonna be fifty in two more years. I'm out of the acting business and I'm terminally ill. What is the point of an old, glamour-puss like me going on when there's no more glamour to be had?"

"But what about me?" said Sarah, feeling frustrated to hear her mother not care about her life so much and also frustrated that she'd feel so much emotion if this did turn out to be a huge lie. "Wouldn't you have tried to stay alive for me?"

"Honey, of course I thought about you," said Linda, sounding stunned. "That's why I want you to come with me so much. I want to spend the rest of my life alongside my daughter. That's reasonable, right?"

"It was your decision to leave in the first place," said Sarah, heavily.

"Here you are," said the waitress, who came over to the table and set their drinks in front of them. "Enjoy."

The two women thanked the girl and took their cups. "I've already told you it was a bad decision to leave you alone with Robert, but I did what I knew was best. I didn't want you to be a Hollywood girl and I'm glad you're not. But it's not like I ever forgot your birthday or anything like that."

Sarah thought about this. What her mother didn't give her in time, she got in gifts. Most of the stuffed animals she'd had when she was younger had come from Linda. Lancelot and her other teddy bears were among the gifts that Linda had given her as tokens. There has also been the music box that Jareth had based his crystal dream on. The music box and been the hardest of her teenage possessions to truly part with. True, after the Labyrinth, Sarah had placed it in a drawer for several days, but its sentimental value had come back full force.

Sarah thought sadly of the day she'd lost the music box forever. When Toby had been four years old, he'd taken it from her room and was playing with it on the stairs when, once his back was turned, it had fallen from the banister and had shattered. Toby had cried and cried over what he'd done and had begged her to forgive him for ruining it. Sarah had told him it was alright and had truly forgiven him for it, but her heart had still broken a bit when she saw Robert throwing the pieces, including the little dancer, into the garbage while Irene vacuumed up the rest. The death of the music box had vividly reminded Sarah of herself in the crystal dream Jareth had set up for her. One minute she had been dancing in his arms, then next the dream was destroyed and she'd woken up in the junk yard.

"Sweetie? Sarah, are you still with me?"

"Oh," Sarah snapped out of her thoughts and focused on her mother. "Oh, sorry Mom."

Linda stared at Sarah. "Are you okay, Honey? You seem kinda out of it. Does this really bother you that much?"

"There are . . . a lot of things on my mind is all," said Sarah dismissively. She looked down at the foam cup in front of her mother. "Um, aren't you gonna have any of your iced tea, Mom?"

"Oh, yes," said Linda, fitting the tiny straw into the lid. "I don't know why they had to give me iced tea in a coffee cup though."

"They were out of the clear ones," Sarah said. "The coffee cups were all they had left."

"Pity that," said Linda, putting the straw into her lips and sipping the liquid inside.

Sarah watched her mother drinking, butterflies erupting in her stomach. But Linda simply put her cup back down and let out a satisfied little sigh. "Hit the spot," she said, beaming. "Now, back to business, I guess."

"Y-yeah," said Sarah, nervously. "Um, how is it?"

"How is what?" said Linda.

"Your tea," said Sarah, simply.

"Oh, it's just fine dear," said Linda, raising her eyebrow playfully at her. "It's not too sweet, not too tart. It's perfect, dear."

Sarah felt something within her let out a tiny wail of misery. She looked down at her own cup of black coffee and felt disgusted. Something must have shown on her face because Linda said suddenly, "Sarah? Are you sure you're okay, dear? You're really, very out of it."

"Mom . . . you're drinking iced coffee."

Linda blinked. "Excuse me? What did you say, dear?"

"Coffee," Sarah repeated. "That's iced coffee in your cup. It's not tea."

Linda stared at her. "What? Sarah, why on earth would you give me iced coffee? I said I wanted tea, didn't I? Or was this some kind of silly joke?"

When Sarah hung her head even lower, Linda said quickly, "Not that I don't enjoy a good joke as much as the next person, sweetie. It's just that I didn't think you were into this kind of thing."

"You . . . can't taste, can you Mom?" said Sarah.

"What?" said Linda, now looking quite bewildered. "Don't be silly. I just wasn't able to tell the difference right away. It was too cold, is all. The ice . . ."

"There is no ice," said Sarah, now putting her face in her hands. "I lied. That's hot coffee, not iced coffee. You can't feel either, can you?"

There was a slight pause. At an alarming rate, Linda put on a pained expression. "It's my illness, dear. I've been . . . losing my sense of touch for some time now. I can't taste so well either and . . ."

"That's not true," said Sarah through gritted teeth. "That's not the truth and I know it."

Linda stared at Sarah, looking truly puzzled. After a moment, however, Linda's face changed. Her eyes narrowed in an exasperated way and she slumped forward somewhat. In the blink of an eye, she had gone from confused to annoyed. Sarah supposed she should have known better. Her mother was always a wonderful actress.

"Alright, enough of this," said Linda, in a stern voice that didn't suit her. "What's this all about, Sarah? What's with the jokes?"

"It's not a joke," said Sarah, taking her face out of her hands. "It was a test. And you failed."

"A test for what?" said Linda, now quite annoyed.

"Mom, I know okay," said Sarah, staring right into the green eyes of her mother. "I know what that . . . that _club_ of yours does. I know and it's not right."

Linda, stared hard at Sarah for awhile. "What's not right?" she asked. "What do we do that's so not right, Sarah?"

Sarah looked at her mother incredulously. Did she not know or was she trying to bait her? Lowering her voice so as not to attract the attention of the college girls, she said, "Well, for starters, you're going into another world."

"So have you," said Linda, stiffly.

"How do you know about that!?" Sarah demanded.

"I'm not an idiot, Sarah," said Linda, crossly. "A ten-year-old boy walks away from a car accident that should have killed him and all of a sudden he'd a model-student golden boy? Only the elixir can do that."

"Elixir?" said Sarah.

"That's what we call it," said Linda. "I don't know how you managed to get your hands on some for your little stepbrother, but we've been trying to get our hands on it for ages. Our stock is running low and it's all that keeps most of us going."

"How long have you been taking it?" Sarah asked. Her mother's attitude was starting to try her patience.

"Long enough," said Linda, dismissively. "I wasn't lying Sarah. Without it, I'll die. We'll all die. And you would never have been born."

"Mom," Sarah lowered her voice both to avoid the attention of the other customers and to keep herself calm. "Don't you know what that stuff is?"

"Just what is it then?" said Linda, also sounding less than patient.

"It's _blood_, Mom!" Sarah cried. "You're drinking blood!"

Linda raised her eyebrow in a stern look. "So?"

Sarah pulled away from her mother, stunned. Of all the things she could have said, of all the things that it was possible to say, that wasn't the one she wanted to hear. That was the very, very last thing she wanted her mother to say in response to that. There was no shock. There was no revulsion. Linda _knew_ what she was doing. She _knew_ where it came from. And she'd always known.

Linda shook her head, her fingers tapping her forehead. "Seriously, Sarah," she said, annoyed. "What has gotten into you? When did you get so offensive? And last time I checked what I do is my business. There's no need to be so . . . where are you going!?"

Sarah stood up out of her seat and gave her mother one last melancholy look. "Goodbye, Mom," she said quietly, before turning her back on her mother and walking out of the café.

"What do you mean 'goodbye'?" said Linda, angrily. "Where are you going?! Sarah! I'M NOT DONE TALKING TO YOU!"

Sarah ignored her and stormed out of the shop, her heart aching at the sound of her mother's harsh tone. She climbed into her car and drove away before Linda could follow her. She drove home fast, but stopped at every red light so she could dry her eyes before needing to take the wheel again. When she pulled up next to her house, Sarah bent over and let her heartache take over.

Linda had lied to her. She'd lied about the cancer, she'd lied about the blood, she'd lied about the club, and she'd lied about everything. Her mother, the one most wonderful source of inspiration in her life had lied to her. Her hero was a traitor. But this was her _mother!_ One of the single most important people in anyone's life. What was she going to do now? What could she do?

Sarah got out of the car and hurried into her house. What else could Linda have lied to her about? Just how much of her life had been a lie. Well, she could guess a few things. Jeremy had been a lie. He'd been a cover-up story. He'd been an excuse to get away from married life so that she wouldn't have to explain to her husband why she never aged. Being an actress must have been a lie too. She'd been running off with the rest of her Ladies Club . . . no . . . with her _Huntresses._ What about her? The child of a Huntress. Was she supposed to join them? What was supposed to happen next?

Hurrying into her living room, Sarah collapsed onto her couch and wanted very much to let loose. For some reason, she was more angry than upset. The only tears that stung her eyes now were angry ones. Why couldn't she be more upset and cry over her mother's betrayal?

But then, something large and warm pressed into her hair. Sarah twisted around. Jareth was kneeling next to her on the couch and had placed his hand comfortingly on the top of her head.

"I take it you didn't like the results of your outing with your mother," he said, softly. He didn't sound angry, he was simply emotionless.

Sarah turned over slightly so she could face him properly. "I thought . . . you were asleep . . . when I called her."

"It didn't take a genius to figure it out," said Jareth simply.

Sarah turned back into the couch, shaking her head into the cushion. "I gave her . . . every chance to tell the truth. She only did after I practically baited her and flat out told her I already knew what the truth was."

"She didn't want you to know the truth until she thought you'd accept it," said Jareth, simply.

Sarah thought about this for a moment, then she turned back to face him, her face set. "So then," she said, wiping her eyes. "I guess it's your turn now."

Jareth stared at her. "My turn for what?"

"Your turn to tell me the truth," said Sarah. "I want the truth. All of it. There's no way we're gonna trust each other, heck there's no way I'm gonna trust anybody, until I get the truth. My mom couldn't do it, but now it's your turn, Goblin King. Tell me the truth."

Jareth stared at her for a moment, looking rather alarmed. But after a moment, his face fell into an expressionless mask. "The truth about what, exactly?" he asked, calmly.

"Everything," snapped Sarah. "And trust me, I'll know if you lie."

There was slight pause in which Jareth took several deep breaths. "Very well," he said, finally. "But you won't like what you hear. I guarantee it."

**Ying-Fa: Linda's cover is blown! The truth is out! And Jareth's somber tale is coming up! Please leave your reviews and I'll return as soon as I can.**

**Nagini-chan: You shouldn't call people's lives somber.**


	14. A Long Story

**Ying-Fa: Sorry for the wait. I hate school. My faster computer isn't letting me so much as check my email without kicking me off the internet! DANG YOU VIRUSES! Still, I finally mangaged to bring you this chapter. Note: this entire chapter is in Jareth's POV, so it is him talking the whole time, up until the end. Thank you all very much for your patience and please enjoy.**

To begin at the beginning, I suppose that it started shortly after I took control of the Goblin Kingdom. This was prior to the Labyrinth's creation, but the castle and the Goblin City were already in existence. As you already know, goblins are tenacious and mischievous to a fault. Their previous leader, my predecessor, was growing tired and senile. He could no longer keep up with the rest of the goblins and so it was decided by the Fae Council that a Fae should be given the position of ruler over the goblins.

I'd just barely stopped aging when it was decided that I should take the throne. I admit I was reluctant to take it. It was clear that the Council was just trying to find some kind of use for me. You see, I was brought up by the Council. My mother had died of illness when I was a child and my father was . . . well, less than kind. My mother's death was a blow to him. He rejected me with his entire being and I was removed from his custody. He later committed suicide so that he could join my mother in death. But all this was far before my memory will permit me to remember. On all accounts, I don't have much of an opinion of the man or his actions. I never thought about him if I could help it.

Apart from that dreary tale, my life seemed simple. I took the throne of the Goblin Kingdom, as the Council wanted, but against my wishes. I thought my life would be better spent some other way. Nevertheless, I ruled the goblins with the iron fist that the Council had expected of me. As I was their first ruler who was not one of them, the goblins quickly gave me credit for being a superior in magic and status.

It was also shortly after I took over the Goblin Kingdom that I met Cassius. Fate made our paths cross one day while I was making my way back to the Council for a meeting with the Fae Elders. I already knew Cassius by reputation, but this was the first time we'd met face-to-face. I learned that we had much in common and we became fast friends. He agreed to teach me some of his dream techniques if I agreed let him use goblins in some of his twisted visions he used to frighten the Abovegrounders.

Yet the times were troublesome, for the Fae lived in constant fear of the Huntresses. I had heard of them and their exploits. They came when we least expected it, kidnapping anyone they could find. Male, female, adult, child, any kind of Fae was good enough for them. It mattered not as long as they got to drain us of our blood and drink it to sustain eternal youth and beauty. They had yet to directly affect me though. I hardly thought of them anymore than I had to. I had met the families of victims, even attended some funerals, but never had they come directly into my own life. I lived in ignorance and basked in the bliss of not knowing.

But then somebody came into my life that changed that completely. The Fae race is dwindling. Though we live forever, conception is very difficult so we cannot expand as humans do. Along with the very real threat of the Huntresses, it was strongly encouraged for Fae to marry and keep the Fae race alive and flourishing in the Underground. And it was during this time that I met Yvaine. She was a Fae woman of noble decent and the younger daughter of a prestigious couple who had successfully produced two children.

She was a very tender thing, Yvaine. A kind girl and of rare charm who had caught my attentions fairly quickly. Though I intended to court her, I wasn't sure just what kind of pair we'd make. Her father, however, had been delighted when his daughter had caught my eye. You'd think that being a King of Goblins wasn't something to boast about, but it had given me a kind of popularity that I admit I wasn't expecting.

In any case, Yvaine and I saw quite a bit of each other. She'd visit me in the Castle and I'd visit her own manor home in return. I was surprised at how very fond I was becoming of her. She wasn't exactly the type of beauty that I prefer. Her hair was pale blonde and her eyes were deep brown. Though she wasn't quite what I'd envisioned my future bride to be like, I continued to pay her court. Her spirit was a gentle one and her kindness was unending. Her father was delighted and, before either of us could stop him, he'd spread the word that we were to be married. Well, that wasn't something that we could just take back. The need for unions between Fae was becoming so important that it couldn't just be ignored. If I was honest with myself, I did care for Yvaine. I cared for her deeply and I thought I loved her. But, that was back before I knew what love was. It would still be a very, very long time before I found that out. Then, one day, I addressed Yvaine about the prospect of marriage.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

_"Your father had set up a rather interesting position for us, hasn't he?" Jareth asked, in a slightly sarcastic tone._

_"That's my father for you, I guess," said Yvaine, bashfully. "He always jumps to conclusions."_

_"Well, I suppose it is something to consider," said Jareth, leaning in slightly. "Now that the entire Underground is under the impression that we are to wed, I can't help but wonder. Just what is your view on that, Yvaine? What would you think . . . about being my wife?"_

_Yvaine looked down and blushed, but there wasn't any giddiness or excitement in her eyes. She looked more worried and concerned. "Oh, well . . . I don't know, Jareth. Oh, please don't get me wrong! I love you dearly but . . . I don't know if . . . the love I feel is the kind of love . . . that a wife should have for her husband."_

_Jareth raised his eyebrow at her. "What other kinds of love could there be?" he said, uncertainly. "Love is love, isn't it?"_

_"But there are many different kinds of love," said Yvaine. "We mustn't forget who we are, Jareth. When Fae love, it is forever. Can you do that? Do you think you'd be happy if you could have me and only me for the rest of forever?"_

_/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/_

I didn't know what she meant, exactly. For me, to love at all was enough. But, it mattered not. In the end, I asked Yvaine to marry me and she accepted, albeit rather uncertainly. I didn't admit to her or anyone else that I too was uncertain. But it didn't matter. If we called off the engagement, it would reflect very poorly indeed on us. Personally, I could have dealt with anything that the Underground had to throw at me, but I wasn't sure the pride of Yvaine's father and brother could stomach it.

As the day of our wedding drew ever closer, Yvaine . . . disappeared. The instant it was realized that she wasn't anywhere she should be, a panic broke out in the Underground. Everyone searched frantically for her. We searched for her and found nothing. Time works differently in the Underground than it does in the Aboveground. It works faster. As you know, thirteen hours here is equivalent to about five hours there. The longer she stayed missing, the more panicked we became. They all knew that the Huntresses were at large as ever, but I refused to believe it. I wanted to believe she left for her own reasons rather than being taken.

I found her . . . almost two days after she first vanished. Cassius and her brother, Yasir, were with me when we found her. It was . . . horrible. She'd been dumped, stripped and cut, several miles south of the City. Her entire body was covered in cuts. It was as if the blood had been taken from her in a way the Huntresses had never done before. They were usually neat and careful with their victims. But this . . . this was malicious. Yvaine had suffered greatly. We figured it was the work of a recent addition to the Huntresses, or that one of them had possibly gone rogue. But, it mattered not. The main difference was that Yvaine was still alive . . . but breathing her last.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

_"YVAINE!" Yasir was screaming. "Yvaine! My sister! Hold on, my sister! You'll be alright!"_

_"Yasir, go and get help," Cassius was shouting. "She needs aid and now!"_

_"No," bellowed Yasir, staring furiously at Cassius. "You go! You get help! I won't leave her! I won't leave my sister!"_

_Jareth barely heard them. He was cradling Yvaine's body in his arms, unable to truly believe what he was seeing. "Yvaine," he said, softly. "Oh, Yvaine . . ."_

_The cuts all over her body were gruesome and cruelly done. Only fragments of the blue gown she'd worn the day she disappeared still clung to her, just barely keeping her modesty in tact. Her wrists were slashed multiple times downward over the length of her arm, her thighs cut equally in number and depth. Her finger and toenails were gone and several of her teeth were also missing. Jareth could hardly believe that this poor, cut, ruined girl was Yvaine._

_"Yvaine," he whispered again. "It'll be alright, Yvaine. I promise you."_

_"J . . . Jar . . . eth," Yvaine's voice was hoarse and dry, apparently from screaming, was barely audible._

_"It's alright," Jareth insisted, bringing her closer. "We'll get you healed, Yvaine. You'll be fine. You will."_

_"I'm . . . sc . . . scared," sobbed Yvaine._

_"Don't be!" Jareth insisted, feeling a terrible fear start to form within him. He knew what was going to happen. He just knew it. "Yvaine, you must tell me. Who did this to you? Who was it? Was it the Huntresses?"_

_Yvaine lifted her head through what seemed to be a great effort, and nodded. "L . . . Lil . . .ith," she gasped._

_"Lilith?"_

_". . . I'm . . . sc . . . scared . . ."_

_"What?" Jareth pulled her even closer to him. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be. Yvaine wasn't really . . . she wasn't really about to . . ._

_" . . . J-Jar . . ."_

_"What? What is it, my dear?" Jareth whispered, almost overcome with sorrow._

_" . . . I . . . hope . . . you'll . . . f-find . . . . ."_

_But Yvaine never managed to finish what she was saying. She never said anything at all again._

_/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/_

It was shortly after that that things changed. Yvaine's father was as devastated as we all were once he found out what happened to his daughter. Yasir, however, had found an outlet to his grief and despair. That outlet was me. He blamed me for what happened to her. He said it was my lack of love for Yvaine that brought this curse upon her. Of course, nobody really believed him. Cassius spoke in my defense and he can be a very . . . convincing person. Still, that didn't stop me from taking Yasir's accusations to heart. It would be almost impossible not to. I felt guilty. I was greatly saddened by the loss of Yvaine. She was a kind and gentle spirit and the world is less bright without her but . . . my heart wasn't broken. It ached, but it wasn't broken. My spirit was sad, but I failed to shed a tear for her. I couldn't . . . grieve like a man who had lost the one who was going to be his wife.

So, I decided to do something else. I would make it up to her in a different way. I would seek revenge for her. I would find the Huntress who had broken their code and ripped Yvaine from this world to torture her for her blood. It had been her dying wish that I would find something, so I assumed that was what she meant. That she wanted me to find her murderer and seek revenge.

First, I had to make sure that the Huntresses would never find me first. That was when I created the Labyrinth. It was built for two purposes. It was for keeping the world out and myself in. By isolating myself I felt I was doing it for her as well. This way, I would be cut off from others, unable to find comfort in others, until my task was complete. I suppose, looking back now, it was also a way of punishing myself for my unbroken heart. That should have made Yasir happy.

After that I made several trips to the Aboveground, searching for the Huntresses and the one that had murdered Yvaine. Before long, I caught their trail and watched them from a safe distance. That was when I first saw Lilith, or Linda, to you. Her birth name was Lilith Daumier and she was born in the Aboveground year of 1845. She was hailed among the rest of the Huntresses for she, like you, was born from another Huntress. Her mother was Nefeltari. She's been around since, oh, the year 50 A.D., I believe. She was the first Huntress and has kept going long enough to see the future become history. She goes under a different name now. I believe she now goes by the name Natasha.

On all accounts, both of those women should not be able to conceive children at all. Another thing that a human loses after consuming Fae blood for so long is the ability to reproduce. It comes naturally difficult for us and that passes on to those who partake of our blood. But, Nefeltari and Lilith managed it. They must be practicing some kind of magic that I've never heard of before, but they managed it. The men they conceive with may not be permitted to join the Hunt, but they are graced with the prospect of marriage for some time. Nefeltari entered the village where your grandfather lived and conceived Lilith with him. After making sure that Lilith would be taken care of until it was time for her to join, Nefeltari faked her own death. A good twenty years later, she returned to the village, stole Lilith away, never to return. Lilith was thrilled that her mother was still alive and glowed at the prospect of never growing old. True, it meant leaving behind a boy who had proposed marriage to her, but that hardly mattered. Between marriage and eternal life, Lilith chose the latter.

For a long time I kept to myself. Quietly observing Lilith and the rest, I waited for a chance to strike. I didn't dare just barge in and attack the little princess to the Huntress throne, now did I? Before long, my chance came to me. I found that Lilith had taken where her mother left off. She'd become pregnant with a simple man while under the guise of an aspiring actress in New England. That's when it hit me. That's how I knew I'd get back at all of them for what they'd done.

I'd use the child. I'd use Lilith's child to my advantage. Slowly, I started planning out my attack in my mind. I began brewing up my scheme for revenge, using Lilith's child as the key. By the time I'd had it all figured out, that was when I was visited for the first time by someone I'd called my closest friend.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

_Jareth stood on his balcony just outside the window, gazing out over the Labyrinth. His plans would come into fruition soon. He'd finally have his revenge. But it would take more time, more patience. But that didn't matter. He was good at waiting._

_At that moment, he felt something going on behind him._

_"You know, I really do give credit to your skills in architecture. If this is your idea of a garden maze, you may have over done it. It's like you don't want visitors."_

_Jareth sighed and turned around to face Cassius. "I don't remember inviting you," he said, curtly._

_"You didn't," said Cassius, swaggering forth proudly. "I invited myself. I can do that, you know."_

_"Hm," said Jareth, turning away again._

_"You're planning something very dark, aren't you, my friend?" said Cassius, coming over to stand next to Jareth on the balcony._

_"It's none of your business," snapped Jareth. "Stay out of my mind, Cassius."_

_"Ooh, not very friendly," Cassius chuckled. "Don't tell me you're still brooding on what that dummkopf Yasir said, are you?"_

_"I'm not brooding, I'm taking action," said Jareth, simply._

_Cassius's grin darkened. "Action, Jareth? Are you taking action or are you seeking revenge?"_

_"What difference does it make?" asked Jareth, curtly._

_"All the difference, my friend," replied Cassius. "There's a very great difference between doing what's right and doing what makes you feel better."_

_"You are a master of fear, aren't you?" said Jareth. "Well, you know what the evil truly fear, right? Well, I shall invoke that fear. I shall bring it to life so that the Huntresses shall pay for what they've done, not just to Yvaine, but to everyone they've killed."_

_"Is that so?" said Cassius, leaning casually against the wall of the balcony. "And just how do you plan to do that?"_

_Jareth grinned. "Yvaine's murderer, Lilith, is with child."_

_Cassius gaped at him. "That's not possible."_

_"She was boasting about it for all of both worlds to hear," said Jareth, waving his hand. "Like mother like daughter, I suppose. Lilith's child will be considered a princess to them. Lilith is certain that the child will be a female, and so she shall be an heiress. They will be expecting her to become one of them. In time, she will be made into a leader. Just as Lilith took the most of the authority from Nefeltari, this child shall take everything."_

_Cassius didn't say anything. He was staring hard at Jareth, trying to search his thoughts, but Jareth knew his friend all too well. Eye contact was vital for Cassius's thought scrying. Jareth continued to look downward at the Labyrinth, but went on talking._

_"I shall lure this child into the Labyrinth and keep her here," he said. "I shall keep her here until her spirit breaks. The Huntresses shall learn of her disappearance and they'll come Underground looking for her. When they do, I shall be here, luring them one by one into the Labyrinth. Then, they shall wander within its depths, never finding the way out, until the power of the blood within them fades. They will grow lost, grow old, and die never again seeing the outside world or their own world again."_

_There was a long pause after that. Jareth took a second to bask in the glory of his plan, satisfied with it. He would not do deliberate harm to any of them. They would be their own undoing. What a perfect plan._

_Finally, Cassius spoke. "If you were hoping for my help in this plan of yours . . . you won't be getting it."_

_Jareth's eyes widened. There was an icy edge to Cassius's voice that he'd hardly ever heard before. Nevertheless, he knew that what he was saying was true. Slowly, Jareth turned around to face Cassius, whose face was as empty and expressionless as a death mask._

_"I wasn't hoping for it," said Jareth, just as coldly. "You can see yourself out, I'm sure."_

_Jareth turned his back on Cassius and walked away. Behind him he heard the flapping of wings and the distant caw of a crow._

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

I didn't know then just how right Cassius would be. I didn't know that my brilliant revenge plan was going to go completely and totally array. How could I have known what would happen? Perhaps I set myself up for failure, or maybe it was Fate playing its cruel game with me. Nevertheless, the key to my entire plan was the downfall of it all.

I watched Lilith's daughter as she grew up in the absence of her mother. I knew that Lilith would keep her distance for fear of her husband recognizing her and notice that she hadn't aged a day in years, but I stayed close. I observed the girl, you Sarah, and tried to find a way to get you to call upon me when the time was right. My answer came when Lilith's husband remarried and bore a son with his second wife. Your resentment of your brother allowed me to conjure a plan. I created a book that told a tale of a girl who wished her brother away to the goblins that lived in the Labyrinth. I thought that you might take the book to heart one day and then I could come and whisk you both away to the Underground, causing Lilith and the rest to follow . . .

But I made a mistake. I watched you too closely. The idea that you would one day come to the Labyrinth and live there permanently became a fact. I knew that you _would _come and you _would_ stay with me. I looked forward to it. I wanted you with me. I wanted you safe from your wicked mother and her foul coven. I wanted to take you away from this dangerous, filthy world and keep you guarded and safe. I . . . wanted you with me so very badly I almost forgot my original plan. I wanted you to wish your brother away and fail the Labyrinth so you could _be with me._

Finally the day came and you wished that I would take your brother. I did so but I did something that wasn't a part of the plan. I offered you your dreams. I wanted to see if you would simply come to me willingly. But you did not. Your good heart wouldn't allow me to keep Toby while it was because of you he was there in the first place. So, I told you if you could solve the Labyrinth, you could take him back and go home.

Of course, I wasn't expecting you to win at all. It would ruin my entire vision if you did. You would leave me, possibly forever, and Lilith and the others would bring you into their plans. The Labyrinth would never be defeated, of that I was certain. I was confident that you would fail. But I was wrong. I think I knew long before your thirteen hours were up that I was wrong. You didn't give up, and I was sure you'd give up long before you even failed to reach the oubliettes. Then you stood your ground against me in the tunnels. By then I was uneasy. You weren't succumbing to the power of the Labyrinth. You weren't going to give up. So, I took your time away and sent the Cleaners after you. It had been my intention for them to chase you into the wrong direction, passed the ladder that would take you out of the tunnels.

I'd forgotten the locked gate. You didn't notice but I was watching as they chased you. I didn't want you to get hurt but . . . I couldn't have you beating me either. You found the sealed doorway and tried to open it to save yourself from the Cleaners and then I had to make the choice. If I opened the door, you'd be safe and you wouldn't be hurt but you would also be going in the right direction, which was the last thing I wanted. If I left it closed, the Cleaners would surely have killed you and Hogsbreath. I couldn't just let that happen. I didn't want you hurt. I'd never want to hurt you. I opened the doorway at the last second. I hoped that the scare you'd received and the confusing hedges that came next would be enough to hinder your progress.

Again, you proved me wrong. You fought against everything I sent your way. None of the Labyrinth's natural dangers could stop you. Then I sent you the peach. I wanted to show you just what would await you once you failed and remained in the Labyrinth. It was never my intention to lock you away in an oubliette forever. That was the fate that I had planned for Lilith. I couldn't forget you even if I tried. I . . . cared too much for you. I would have let you into the castle where I would keep you safe from the wretched world. I would keep you with me. But even after you forgot everything, you fought against me. You recovered the memories I'd suppressed and you charged ahead and made it to the city and then the castle itself.

By then I was at my wits end. I couldn't just let you win. I couldn't just let you go. I didn't want you to go. I'd lose you forever if you left. I was desperate. I showed you your dreams again, hoping you'd see reason, my reason. I'd thought I was doing this for revenge, but that wasn't it anymore. What I wanted . . . what I really, truly wanted . . . was you. You, who I cared about more than anyone in all my life. You, who I cared for even more that I had Yvaine. You, who I . . .

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"_Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."_

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

As Jareth brought his story to an end, he carefully looked over at Sarah. She had sat silently on the couch and hadn't spoken once during his tale. Her hands were gripping her knees so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. Her head was lowered so that he couldn't see her face, but he did see a few fat hears drop from her eyes and splash down onto her hands.

There was a very long stretch of silence. There was nothing that could be said or done at that point. Jareth's heart ached to see her tears, but he didn't regret what he'd told her. She'd asked him for the truth and he'd surrendered it. She can't expect more than that. After a moment, Sarah stood up and, without looking at him, left the room. A few seconds later her heard her bedroom door slam shut. His heart heavy, Jareth went back into the guest room and closed the door behind him.

**Ying-Fa: There it is, ladies and gentleman! Please leave me those delicious reviews and I'll try to update sooner this time.**


	15. An Old Friendship

**Ying-Fa: This is it. The big one. The one we've all been waiting for. I'll let you know right now I had SO MUCH FUN writing this one. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed concerning my question at the end of Chapter 7. So, now without the slightest ado whatsoever, here's the next chapter!**

It had been a setup. From the very start, it had all been a setup. From the day she'd found _The Labyrinth_, to the moment she'd said that he had no power over her, it had all been his plan. Sarah now felt so hurt and miserable she didn't know what to do anymore. Her mother remorselessly killed people so that she could drink their blood to stay young. Jareth had used her as bait to get his revenge for his dead girlfriend. Now what was she supposed to do? Who was she supposed to listen to now? Who was she supposed to _believe!?_

Sarah lay face down on her bed; her face buried in her pillow and let her silent tears flow mercilessly. She didn't know what to do anymore. Both Linda and Jareth had betrayed her. Her faith in both of them was completely shattered. Especially her mother. She'd been the biggest disappointment. All she'd wanted to be when she was young was just like her mother. Linda had been the ideal person she always wanted to be like. Now this was what she really was. A _Huntress._ It was like learning your favorite sports star had held illegal dog fights. Then there was Jareth. The man she'd been comparing each and every one of her suitors to for the past ten years. He'd been the perfect portrayal of power and beauty. Now she found out that he'd used her for his own means. She just didn't know what to do. If only she could just . . . get away.

She wanted to go away. Far away where nobody would find her ever again. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, away from her mother, and away from Jareth. She could live there all by herself, without anyone, maybe only ever speaking to Toby. A farm, maybe, with lots of animals that she could take care of. A simple, secluded life away from all this magic and mayhem. Someplace where she'd never have to deal with horrible things like this ever again.

Her misery took what energy she had out of her. She closed her still streaming eyes and fell asleep, hoping to wake up and find out that there Toby had never been in an accident, that there was no Underground, and her mother was still enjoying life in L.A. with Jeremy . . .

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

She was standing in a long hallway with black walls that stretched on and on forever. The other end was nowhere in sight. Curious, she walked forward. Where was she? Was she dreaming? It didn't feel like it. She could usually tell dreams from reality but this time, she was at a complete loss. As she moved forward she turned to look at the black walls. Suddenly a light came on and Sarah screamed and jumped back.

A man's white, screaming face was pressed up against a window. But no, it _wasn't_ a window. It was a portrait. More lights came on and portraits of all kinds were revealed, some strange, some rather normal, and some quite scary.

There were several pictures of clowns, some juggling with their make-up grins plastered onto their faces, and some with fangs dripping blood onto their bright costumes. There was a picture of a cliff, at the bottom of which there was a huge mass of needles. One was of a man who appeared to be running, checking his watch, apparently late. A cowering person was sitting amidst a bunch of laughing faces and pointing fingers. Eerie shadow figures were leering and pursuing a helpless victim who was trapped between the shadows and a drop-off.

Sarah gazed around at the pictures with a kind of morbid fascination. Each of these pictures seemed to say something. They spoke in a way that sent chills down her spine. As she tore her eyes away from a picture of a person who was crying in front of tombstones, who must have been the markings for dead family members, when something new caught her eye. The largest picture of them all was sitting at the end of the hall, covered in a sheet. Sarah went over to it. She wanted to see what the picture looked like. Tugging on the cloth, it fell away to reveal another painting, only this one looked like a simple portrait.

Two men were featured in the painting, one sitting down in a chair, and one standing just behind him. The one in the chair Sarah recognized right away. It was Jareth, sitting casually in his seat, his head tilted to show off his strong jaw and long neck. Sarah tore her eyes away from Jareth to look at the other figure, which she also recognized. His pale, pointed face, his slick black hair, those chocolate eyes . . .

"Welcome to my Gallery, Miss Williams."

Sarah spun around. The man in the picture was standing right behind her, in the flesh. He moved toward her, his head bowed and his mouth smiling.

"You," she said. "You're . . . Cassius?"

Cassius's smile grew wider, showing perfectly white, though slightly pointed, teeth. "The one and only," he said. "I'm so glad we get a chance to speak at last. Do excuse me for that little ballroom incident. I only wanted a better look at your relationship with Jareth, is all."

"I see," said Sarah, carefully. "That's right. You and Jareth are . . . best friends or something, aren't you?"

"Well, 'best' isn't the word I'd use," said Cassius, loftily. "But we're not exactly 'former' friends either. I suppose you could call us 'out-of-touch'."

"That's right," said Sarah. "You didn't like his plans for me. You said you wouldn't help him."

"I'm not the type to hold grudges," said Cassius, scratching his goatee thoughtfully. "I deal with problems at once so that way I'll never have to think about them again. Come with me, Miss Sarah," he offered Sarah his arm. Looking carefully at him, Sarah took it cautiously.

"Do you like my work?" said Cassius as they walked, gesturing to the paintings.

"You painted these?" asked Sarah.

"No, I created them," replied Cassius. "These are all nightmares. Images created to keep the human mind aware and alert of the very real dangers that exist in the world."

"What's so real about that?" said Sarah, pointing to a painting of a bunch of pterodactyl skeletons laying amidst a busy street.

Cassius laughed. "Alright, alright, so I like to have a little fun every now and then," he said. "The strangest things can go through a human's mind. Those things can be turned into the most shocking of nightmares. As I like to say, 'with great power comes great fun!'"

"Does it now?" said Sarah, dully.

"No need to be so grim," said Cassius, cheerfully. "We all have our hobbies, do we not? Even we Undergrounders are entitled to a little leisure time activity. Well, come into the lobby, Sarah. There are a few things we need to discuss."

Cassius turned and opened a door that Sarah hadn't noticed before. She was about to walk through it when she noticed another painting. "Is that a _rubber duck_?" she asked

"Oh . . . yeah," said Cassius, clearing his throat. "Just . . . um . . . don't think about that one. Trust me. You don't want to know about that one."

"But . . ."

"_You don't want to know_," insisted Cassius. "I'm serious."

Shrugging, Sarah walked through the door and found herself in a large sitting room that was decorated in blacks, purples, and deep reds. Cassius walked by her and sat down in a high-backed armchair, next to which was an end table with a silver teapot and china cups on it. Sarah sat herself in a black, velvet sofa and watched Cassius pour tea.

"So," he said, offering her a cup, which she took. "Jareth told you about Yvaine and everything else, has he?"

"How did you know?" asked Sarah, almost choking on her hot tea.

"It doesn't take a mind-reader to know what's going on in your head," said Cassius, smoothly.

Sarah lowered her head, dwelling once again on what Jareth had told her. "He used me," she said, bitterly

Cassius looked at her from over the brim of his cup. "Well that's harsh," he said.

"It's the truth," said Sarah. "He doesn't care about me. All he wanted was his revenge for his girlfriend. I was nothing more than his tool, but his plan backfired. Nothing went as he wanted, I beat the Labyrinth and was able to go home. Now he's all put out because he didn't manage to get what he wanted."

There was a slight pause, during which Cassius finished his tea, but Sarah hadn't picked her cup back up. "Well, from a third-party perspective," said Cassius. "There's still more that needs discussing between you two."

"What more needs to be said?" Sarah asked. "It's over. He already said everything. It's over."

"Of course it's not over," said Cassius, looking up at her. "You forget, dear girl, I know what is going on in people's minds. He told you the bitter truth that you asked for. Isn't that better than the sugar-coated lies that the Huntresses have told you?"

Sarah hesitated. Cassius sighed. "Listen," he said. "I've known Jareth for a long time. He's not a malicious person. He's cunning, crafty, and can be cruel, but he's no liar and he's not evil. Jareth cared deeply for Yvaine, that's true, and her death shook him. What shook him even worse was when he was blamed for what had happened to her."

"I know, but . . ."

"Ah, ah, ah!" said Cassius, pointing a finger at her warningly. "No interrupting here, Miss Sarah. You will listen to everything I have to say, and then you can have your turn, alright?"

Sarah folded her arms and kept quiet.

"See how much easier that is?" said Cassius, with a slight smile. "Now, all that time Jareth spent watching you, he started to care about you. It tore him to pieces when you chose to leave him and it hurt him even worse when he thought your mother had gotten you to join the Huntresses. He cares about you more than he cares about anyone. He cares for you more, much more, than he ever cared about Yvaine."

Sarah looked up at Cassius, stunned. Cassius grinned. "Just ask him a little more about some of the things going through your mind," he said. "Just ask him and listen to what he says. Don't automatically dismiss it as lies, he doesn't lie, not to you or anyone. Give him one more chance, a third shot. Who knows? This time you might just hit a homerun. Oh, don't mind Evanrude, by the way, he's harmless."

Sarah looked beside her and let out a cry of surprise. What she'd thought was a black, velvet cushion was a big, black, blob with wide eyes and a white grinning mouth.

"That's enough," said Cassius to the blob. "I never said you could leave the table until you ate all your vegetables. Off with you, now."

The blob slid off the couch and oozed away. Almost right after that, the sounds of destruction and heavy metal objects could be heard from another room. "What's going on?" Sarah asked, searching for the noise. But Cassius sighed.

"Stupid, useless, worthless things," he growled. "Hang on a minute, won't you, Sarah?"

Cassius stood up and disappeared. In the next minute, the sounds stopped and Sarah could hear Cassius's angry voice yelling.

"FREDDY! JASON! How many times have I told you . . . !!"

"But, Cassius, he started it!"

"Don't you point those razors at anyone, Freddy! You two can't behave for _five minutes_ can you!? Didn't I tell you I'm entertaining a _guest!?_"

"Well, yeah, but . . ."

"No! That's enough! Both of you, go to your rooms right now! No dessert for you!"

"What!? But Cassius, I . . ."

"_Do not make me call your mother, Jason!_"

There was a pause, then the sounds of heavy, angry stomps rather like how Toby did when he was sulking after a punishment. A few seconds later, one of the voices yelled, "I never get to do _anything!_"

"Tell someone who cares!" yelled Cassius's voice and in the next second, he was standing right next to Sarah again. "Horror films," he said, lightly. "They are absolutely childish. I wish I could just turn them into portraits, but they require more corporeal handling."

"Um . . . uh huh," said Sarah, feeling quite out of her league.

"So sorry," said Cassius. "What was I saying?"

Sarah looked down and tried to force her mind off the topic of childish horror film characters and back to the topic at hand. "Jareth," she said.

"Ah, right," said Cassius, sitting back down. "You can't bring yourself to trust him, can you?"

"Well it . . . it's not like that," said Sarah. "It's just that I don't want to do this anymore if it's just going to end up horribly. I just wanna . . . forget about all this. Pretend it never happened."

"Oh, come now. That's not the bright, brave Sarah Williams I've heard so much about."

It wasn't Cassius who had spoken, but a voice from behind them. Sarah turned around. A woman was standing just behind her couch with brilliant ruby red curls and a sparkling dress. There was no mistaking her.

"Mel!" she gasped. "Mel, what on earth are you doing . . ?" But before Sarah could ask, the explanation came for her.

Cassius had stood up and walked right up to Mel. In one, swift movement, he took her in his arms and pulled her into a deep kiss. Mel threw her arms around his neck and returned the kiss with enthusiasm. Only with what appeared to be the deepest reluctance did they pull away to smile at each other.

"Now, now, we have a guest," said Mel, gazing up at him.

"It can't be helped," said Cassius, darkly. "I've missed you."

"W-w-w-wait a minute!?" Sarah cried. "You two . . . know each other!? You . . ." Sarah gasped. "Oh my gosh . . . you're his _wife!?_"

Mel laughed. "Spot on, Sarah," she said.

"Then are . . . are you a _Fae!_?" Sarah asked, unable to take another shocking revelation.

"That's right," said Mel, cheekily. "I'm so very sorry I had to keep you in the dark, Sarah. I wished so much that I could just be honest with you, what with all the secret keeping that seems to go on around you. It's just that the Huntresses are such nosy people and they're much closer to you then you'd think. I couldn't afford to let them know about me."

"Of course not," said Cassius. "What in all the world would I do without you, my dearest love?"

"Tee hee," giggled Mel. "You're such a charmer, my dear, but we do have a guest present. It'll have to wait until later, alright darling?"

"Urgh," said Sarah. "Jareth was right. You guys are embarrassing."

"Just wait," said Mel, not taking her eyes off Cassius. "You'll be a blushing bride yourself before you know it. Anyway, I hope that you have taken my husband's advice to heart."

Sarah lowered her gaze, the seriousness of her reason for being her was back. "I . . ." she mumbled. "Well, I . . . have. Yes, I have."

"Good," said Cassius, pecking Mel on the cheek quickly before turning back to Sarah. "Just remember Sarah, in the situation you're in . . . no matter what you chose, someone is going to get their heart broken. It's up to you to decide who's . . . and how many."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah slowly opened her eyes. She was back at her house, in bed. It looked like she'd slept most of the day away. There was pink and orange light coming into her room, indicating that the sun was setting. The house was completely silent as was the road outside.

Getting up, Sarah went quickly into the bathroom, grabbed a wash cloth off a small rack under the medicine cabinet and washed her face free of sleep. She wanted to be completely awake and alert while she spoke to Jareth. She knew she needed to talk to him and she would do it now before anything else could change her mind. Once her face was alert something occurred to her.

Cursing to herself, she grabbed her hairbrush and ran it through her disheveled hair. _For heavens sake, it was just a little nap!_ She thought angrily. _I shouldn't get bed head after just a couple hours of sleep!_ Fuming over her hair, she brushed it flat. Then gathered her courage and walked over to the guest room where Jareth was staying. She rapped her knuckles against the door, but didn't hear anything.

_Well, even if he is asleep, I'm going in and waking him up,_ she thought hotly. _He doesn't just get to sleep when we have so much to discuss still._

But as she opened the door, she saw that Jareth was awake. He was laying down on the pull-out bed, his boots gone from his feet, as his leather vest was from his chest. His arms and legs were sprawled intimately across the rumpled sheets and his shirt was completely open so that his sculpted chest was exposed for the world to see. He had apparently been staring out of the window, but his head snapped over to look at her when she came in.

Sarah allowed herself just a few seconds to dwell on his exquisite self before she gave herself a mental shake. She walked over and sat down beside him on the bed. It wasn't unnoticed by her that his eye followed her with every step she took up until the minute she sat down beside him.

"We still need to talk," she told him.

Jareth looked up at her with rather blank eyes, but then his familiar smile curled onto his face. "Yes, indeed we do."

**Ying-Fa: Thank you for reading. Please leave your reviews. I've got one heck of a week coming up so I'm not sure when the next chapter's coming exactly. Still, I'll try my best to get here as fast as possible! Thanks again for all your kindness.**


	16. A Decision Made

**Ying-Fa: Sorry for the wait. I . . . am . . . exhausted! I hate doing school work when I'd rather be writing fanfiction. Seriously, I'm typing up reports for my classes and my fanfiction folder is just sitting there, calling to me and telling me to stop working even though my assignments are due tomorrow! Sigh. Anyway, please enjoy.**

Sarah took a deep breath. It was so distracting, having him just lay there like that with his shirt practically off. "Are you gonna . . . sit up?" she asked, hoping that sounded like the most reasonable thing to want.

Jareth's grin deepened. "I think I'll stay like this," he said. "I'm very comfortable down here."

"Fine," sighed Sarah. "Look I'm . . . I'm sorry."

Whatever Jareth was expecting her to say, it wasn't that. His eyes widened and his grin dropped from his charming face.

"I . . . shouldn't have just walked away like that, it was rude of me," Sarah said. "You . . . it must have taken you a lot to be so forward with me. I asked you to tell me the truth and, well, you did. I didn't . . . necessarily like it but it was much better than some sugar-coated lie. It was what I asked for. I seem to have . . . a nasty habit of throwing it in your face when you do what I ask you to, don't I?"

Jareth gaped at her for a moment, looking stunned, but his confidence returned quickly. He smiled more kindly this time and inclined his head. "It's fine, really," he said. "I didn't expect you to take it quite well. Still, you seem quite certain that it was the truth that I told you. I'd have thought you'd be more . . . well, quick to doubt me."

"No, not this time," said Sarah, shrugging. "If I'm honest with you too . . . I already knew about . . . some parts."

Sarah had had to stop herself from going on and saying that she'd known about Yvaine. Still, Jareth had gotten the gist. Sarah didn't need to be able to read minds to know what was going on behind Jareth's closed eyes and the ticking muscle in his jaw. His entire expression was saying, quite clearly, "_I'm going to KILL that dwarf!_"

"Still," said Sarah, hastily. "There are a few things I wanna ask you."

Jareth's face cleared and he looked back up at her. "As have I," he said. "Still, you can go first, seeing as I'm sure you have much more than I do."

"Okay," Sarah said, taking a deep breath. "So, what would have happened to Toby if I hadn't made it through the Labyrinth?"

"I'd actually given that quite a bit of consideration," said Jareth, laying deeper into the mattress. "I think I would have kept him with me as I'd intended to do with you. You did, after all, wish him to be taken away. He was quite the handsome chap and that was when I was confident that you would fail. I figured that, since you wanted him back so badly, it would be comforting if you were able to keep him with you."

"Would he really have become, y'know, a goblin?" Sarah asked.

"Heh," Jareth laughed. "I wouldn't _truly_ have done that. I simply added that into your story because it was something that you might wish on a child that ceases to stop whining. It was something vindictive, yes, but not deadly or painful in anyway. Still, at the end of thirteen hours he probably would have become a permanent resident of the Underground."

"How come?" said Sarah.

"Because that's the law," said Jareth. "The law as it was set down by the Court. Since the Huntresses came around, it was decreed that humans can spend no longer than thirteen hours in the Underground before the pathway between the two worlds is shut to that human permanently. It's rather pointless, really. It doesn't stop the Huntresses any and they're the only humans that ever come there anyway. I doubt they'd know what to do with a human if they did get stuck there."

"But I was there for thirteen hours," said Sarah. "That's how long it took to get Toby back. Or, is that wrong?"

"No, it was right," said Jareth. "You had until the final toll of the clock. If you weren't back by the final toll, then it was over. However, you said the words that got you sent home before the bell had even started tolling."

"So, you really did reorder time in the tunnels?" said Sarah.

"I did," said Jareth. "The Labyrinth is mine, Sarah. It always has been and always will be. Within it, even time is mine to control. So if I command it that two hours are to be gone from the day, they're gone."

"That's kinda . . . intimidating," Sarah admitted.

Jareth grinned and shrugged. "Such is my nature, what can I say more?"

"Yeah, that's true," said Sarah. Once again she found her attention back on his lurid position. She didn't really like talking to him while she was sitting and he was lying down, but she knew he'd stay where he was. He was a king, after all. Resigned to the worst, Sarah leaned back and lay down next to him on her side. Jareth looked a bit surprised, but that didn't last long. Soon he was grinning at her again.

"Just what spurred that on?" he asked.

"I . . . just didn't like talking the way we were," she mumbled. "Looking down at you while we talked, it hurt my neck."

"I see," said Jareth, still looking playfully suspicious. "Well, now that we're both comfortable, just what else would you like to know?"

"Well," said Sarah, trying to focus on her questions and not how very comfortable lying next to him felt. "That dream I had, the one I had after I ate the peach, was that . . . real? Were you really there?"

"Part of me was," said Jareth. "It was the same thing as the dream Cassius recently cooked up for us the other day. We were both there and here. It was a shared dream, yours and mine. I wanted to show you just what you meant to me. Why I needed you to fail."

"You keep saying that," said Sarah, her insides squirming. "You say that you cared about me and wanted to be with me. But at the same time, you were all over Yvaine. She was the reason you planned all of this. She was . . . the one you . . . loved the most, wasn't she?"

Jareth lowered his eyes. He stayed very quiet for a long time, then he shut his eyes tightly and looked back at Sarah.

"_Did_ I love Yvaine?" he said, in a hushed voice. "I . . . I'd thought I did. I just . . . I suppose back then I didn't really know what it means to love someone. I'd cared for her, grieved for her, and a part of me still misses her upon occasion. Still, my heart remained intact when she died. My desire for revenge . . . wasn't on her behalf. It was for myself. I took Yasir's accusations to heart. I truly felt that it was because of my half-hearted affection for Yvaine that led to her demise. If I had sought vengeance against her killers then . . . that would redeem me of that guilt. But back then I . . . didn't know what love was. I didn't know what how it felt to truly love someone until . . ."

Jareth trailed off and lowered his eyes again. Sarah received a slight jolt. She could have sworn that, if he'd finished that sentence, he would have said, " . . . until I met you." But that couldn't be true, could it? Well, he hadn't lied to her yet and she'd told herself that she would trust him.

Wanting to change the subject, Sarah spoke again. They continued to talk to each other calmly. Sarah asked all the questions she had in her head, Jareth answered them as best he could. Bit by bit, they merely sat there talking together as the evening faded into nighttime. Sarah was running out of questions by now and had come down to her last one after what must have been three hours since they'd begun their conversation.

"Jareth, if you wanted me to lose so badly, why did you write in the story that I'd beat the Labyrinth. The words I said were in there, I read them every day. I memorized them. Why would you give them to me if you knew it would be your downfall?"

"I didn't know," said Jareth, looking deep into her eyes. "I . . . needed you to believe in the story so much that you would actually, one day, call me. If I had given you a story that ended with the main character losing after all that troublesome work and failing to save her brother, you wouldn't have liked it as much, would you?"

Sarah blinked. "No," she said. "I . . . probably wouldn't have."

Jareth smiled. He reached forward and ran one finger along a strand of hair that fell into her face. "Now I have a question for you, Sarah."

"H-huh?" Sarah's attention was entirely on the careful movements of Jareth's hand.

"Was there any time at all," he asked. "Any time in its smallest measurement . . . that you genuinely considered accepting my offer?"

Sarah was silent for a long time. She stared hard into Jareth's mismatched eyes. His face was set and serious but his eyes were gentle, almost pleading. He wanted to know if she'd thought about him even half as much as he'd thought about her. Feeling her heart start to speed up, Sarah gulped and forced herself to speak.

"When I was still fifteen, no," she replied. "But the same can't be said for later. It was like nothing, _nothing_, in this world was good enough for me. Nothing could compare to the world I'd found when I found you. I sometimes felt . . . jilted. Like I'd been offered to go on a permanent vacation, but I could only go if I gave up an arm and a leg. To have stayed with you back then was . . . an impossible choice. I couldn't do it then, so I was stuck in this world that didn't feel like my own anymore. And what was more," Sarah swallowed again. She didn't know if she should be talking to him about this but he'd been honest with her from the start. Getting her nerves together, she went on, "What was more was that there was never anyone who made me . . . think the things I do . . . that make me feel what I do . . . when I'm with you."

Jareth looked slightly stunned by her answer but his swagger returned in a heartbeat. And speaking of heartbeats, Sarah's suddenly increased rapidly as he moved closer and closer to her. Feeling breathless, she watched as he lifted himself up on one arm and placed the other one on the other side of her until he was leaning intimately over her, his handsome face shadowed by his wild hair.

Sarah couldn't move to save her life. Her entire being was focused on the man above her, her heart bouncing like a jackrabbit in her chest as Jareth started to move lower, moving inch by inch. In whatever time it took for Jareth to move so close that they were almost nose to nose did he stop and look right past her eyes and deep into her soul with his penetrating stare.

"Sarah?"

The jackrabbit in her chest took an almighty leap at the sound of her name spoken so intimately in his deep, velvety voice. Somehow, Sarah managed to make a weak sound of acknowledgement.

"I never did thank you for saving me, did I?" he murmured softly.

It was when those mismatched eyes slid closed did Sarah know for sure what was going to happen. She closed her eyes too, half out of nerves, half readying herself. Three seconds later, Jareth's lips made contact with hers. Sarah had to resist the urge to whimper. Never in all her life had she felt this way when someone kissed her. It wasn't forced or clumsy or made her feel gross inside. His lips were soft, yet firm in his efforts to get her to respond. That didn't take much. About a second later she was kissing him back with everything she had.

It was like someone had gone in and shut off her brain completely. Barely a single thought was possible. All she knew was Jareth, his warmth, his strength, his smell, his _taste_ . . .

Reality came back so fast it was like someone had cracked a whip in front of them. They broke the kiss at the same time and observed their current situation. Sarah suddenly realized that she was slightly breathless . . . and wrapped around Jareth, who was now completely on top of her. Their legs had entwined together and their bodies pressed together intimately. How had they gotten like that? Sarah carefully extracted her hands from his hair (how had they gotten there?) and she looked up into his eyes. They were open again and smoky with passion.

"Jareth," she said, softly. It had been her intention to say something that would put a stop to what they were doing, but her brain didn't seem to have as much control as it used to. Instead, she kissed him again . . . and again. Each soft press of his lips sent a deep jolt through her entire being, making her yearn for more.

But that wouldn't do. There was still some slight distance between them. They'd closed the gap considerably but there was still a few things in the way. With all the reluctance in the world, she gently pushed him away. He stopped at once when her hands pressed him back, but he left his lips on hers for as long as he could before they finally came apart.

They stayed like that, just looking at each other. Sarah could tell he was disappointed, but understanding. He knew why she'd pushed him away and didn't blame her for doing so. Sarah had her own disappointment for stopping what they'd started, but if they forgot everything and just gave into the moment, it would probably make matters worse. After a few minutes of just looking at each other, Jareth moved off her to lay down on his side next to her. Sarah made to move off the bed and go back to her own room, but he reached over and grasped her hand gently.

"Sarah," he said quietly. "I know that there's still somethings standing between us but, if it's not too much, please stay here with me tonight. I only want . . . your company for awhile. That's all. Once I'm asleep, you can leave."

Sarah's heart tightened. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah I . . . want to be with you tonight too."

Jareth seemed to deflate a little, as if he had been holding his breath waiting for her to reply. He moved closer and wrapped his arms around her again, holding her to him. Within minutes the two were so filled with peace that they were asleep the instant their eyelids slid shut.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

A bright light was shining directly on her closed eyelids. Sarah was so warm and comfortable where she was that she didn't want to move at all. She tried to ignore the light and fall back to sleep, she was so at peace. The light only got brighter so that her eyelids grew red and she finally opened her eyes.

She was curled up on the pull-out bed in her guest room. Jareth was asleep beside her, his back to the window so that the sunlight didn't disturb his sleep. As she looked down at him, Sarah's mind was suddenly very clear. She knew what she needed to do and she needed to do it now, while he was asleep and before anything could change her mind. Sarah carefully detached herself from his arms and went into the bathroom. She took a quick shower and pulled her hair up into a sloppy ponytail, then went into her room to get dressed. Ten minutes later, she was in a simple pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

Sarah grabbed her purse and her keys and left the house as quietly as she could. She hoped he'd stay asleep for awhile. With luck he'd stay that way until she got back. Sarah got into her car and started to drive. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but her mind was set. Sarah refused to let herself be too nervous or dwell too much on what she was planning. The first step was going to be the easiest and if she couldn't to this then she really was hopeless.

About five minutes later, Sarah arrived at a grocery store and went inside. Another twenty minutes later, she was back in her car looking at the two things she'd bought. The first was a large container of salt, the second was a box of baby formula, and lastly was a box of small plastic bags.

Sarah ripped open the bags and took out one bag. She then opened the other boxes and poured a bit of both the salt and the formula into the bag, then sealed it tightly. She then stuffed the back into her jeans pocket, then looked at the formula box once more.

" . . . **excellent source of iron** . . ."

Her heart starting to pound again, Sarah started her car and drove back to her house. Could she really do it? Could she do what it is she planned to do with this bag of powder in her pocket? Could she really betray . . .?

Sarah gave herself a mental shake. No. She'd made up her mind. She was gonna do what she knew she had to do. She wasn't going to think of the ones she'd hurt in the process. Cassius had told her that whatever she chose, someone would be hurt. Well, there's no point in prolonging that. She knew what she wanted to do and she would go through with it. She swore to herself that she would.

She arrived back at her house, got out of her car, and headed for the door. Wiping her face and taking several deep breaths, she opened the door and went inside. She headed straight for the guest room. But the bed was empty.

"Jareth?" she called, looking around for him. "Jareth, where are you?"

Sarah walked back into the living room, looking around . . . and found him. He was sprawled out on the floor, his limbs fallen at strange angles, his face awake but contorted with what might have been pain.

"JARETH!" Sarah cried, hurrying over to him. "Jareth! What happened!?"

"Sa . . . rah," he gasped. "Sa . . . rah . . . run . . ."

"Wha-!"

At that moment, a hand holding a handkerchief came out of nowhere and wrapped itself around her mouth and nose. Sarah screamed, but little sound came out. She struggled as several pairs of hands grabbed her, holding her steady as she kicked and bucked desperately to free herself.

"Hold her still," said a familiar voice. "It'll take a second before she's out."

Sarah twisted around. Linda and Natasha were standing just a few inches away, watching as the rest of the Huntresses held her down and drugged her. Sarah's eyes locked onto her mother's and Linda shook her head slightly.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," she said. Before Sarah could scream again, she felt her consciousness drifting away. Her limbs were heavy, her vision was blurring, and all the fight was taken out of her. She was able to get one last glance at Jareth's sorrowful expression before everything fell into darkness.

**Ying-Fa: Well, I may be crappy at love scenes, but I'm told I write one heck of a cliffhanger. Well, that's it people. You've completely wipped me out of prewritten chapters. The next one is still in progress. I'll finish it soon though. Please review and regard me kindly.**


	17. A Kiss of Hate

**Ying-Fa: I've been looking forward to posting this one. Note that this is the final of the prewritten chapters and when I finish the next one that's when I'll post it. Cross my heart and stuff! Okay, here's the next chapter. Thank you all of those who have stuck with me so far.**

The Goblin City was its usual hustling, bustling, and gibbering self. All of the goblins were going about their lives. The King had not returned for quite some time, so they just decided to pretend he was still there and would punish them for doing anything wrong. But it was somewhat boring while he was away so they set up several projects to do in his absence. Such as teaching the chickens to fly to the moon (on goblin swore that his chicken succeeded and brought a hunk of green cheese to prove it, only to realize the chicken had just taken refuse in the garbage can and had tried to eat some moldy cheese it had found) as well as seeing who what would bounce higher, a cat or a nipper stick, if thrown off a tower.

The town was so busy with keeping itself occupied until Jareth's return, that they didn't notice that the knight who guarded the Bog had sneaked two banished criminals into the city. Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus were walking stealthily through the city, trying to reach the castle without alerting the goblins and making a fuss.

"Are you sure about this, Didymus?" said Hoggle, looking around as they maneuvered through the city. "Why can't we just try contacting Sarah through the mirror we've got?"

"Because she's not been replying all day," said Didymus. "His Majesty's mirror might be more powerful and we'll be able to contact her better this way."

"Ludo want Sawah," growled Ludo.

"Me too," said Hoggle. "I ain't seen her since she told me that Jareth was at her house. I wonder if the two of them are alright, cooped up in that tiny house of hers for so long. I hope they haven't killed each other or somethin'."

"Oh, the good lady is much more considerate than that," said Didymus. "She will care for the King until he is completely recovered from the attack of the Huntresses. You're sure it was them that delayed his return, Sir Hoggle?"

"Sure I'm sure," said Hoggle. "From how Sarah described it, it was definitely them."

"My, my, my, this does look like a most amusing place."

The three creatures jumped into the air. A Fae stood before them, smiling in an almost menacing way was he looked around at the City. Hoggle and Ludo shrank away from the stranger, but Didymus stepped forward.

"Ah! Lord Cassius," he said. "His Majesty's honored friend. It has been some time since you have graced the Labyrinth with your presence. What brings thee here?"

"Didymus, do you _know_ that guy?!" Hoggle asked in disbelief.

"Certainly," said Didymus. "He is His Majesty's honored friend."

"_I gathered that!_"

"Friend?" grunted Ludo.

"Well, these goblins do seem to be a tenacious lot," said Cassius. "It was the right choice, coming here. Now, sir knight, where might I find the best place to speak so that the entire city might hear what I have to say?"

"Why, just in front of the doors to the castle, good sir," said Didymus. "That is where the king stands when he wishes to speak to the congregation."

"Hold it! Hold it!" said Hoggle. "Hold on! What's he gonna talk to the city for? What's he mean, Jareth's friend? What's going on here, I demand to know!"

"Oh, how very sorry I am," said Cassius. "I thought it would matter to you if your king was murdered."

"WHAT!?" gasped Hoggle.

"What canst thou mean!?" cried Didymus.

"Huh? Murdered?" said Ludo.

"Jareth's life is in danger as we speak," said Cassius. "The Huntresses have taken him. My nightmares aren't enough to take them head on. So I thought I'd take Jareth's army and face them. There, now, is that all you wanted to know, pipsqueak?"

"Don't call me pipsqueak!" grunted Hoggle.

"Wait," said Cassius, suddenly. He reached down and grabbed Hoggle's wrist. Hoggle yelped and tried to pull away, but Cassius held him firm. He looked down at Hoggle's arm and saw an old, plastic bracelet hanging onto his wrist.

"Lemme go! Lemme go!" Hoggle demanded and Cassius dropped his arm but not after and new and more sinister smirk came onto his face.

"You three wouldn't happen to be the creatures that aided Sarah across the Labyrinth, would you?" he asked in a deadly sweet voice.

"It . . . it ain't no . . ." Hoggle began, but Didymus interrupted him.

"Indeed, noble sir," said the knight. "It was I and my good brethren who aided and abetted the gentle Lady to her destination whilst on her dangerous quest."

"Sawah friend," said Ludo happily. Hoggle clapped his hand to his forehead.

Cassius's smile reached its most deadly excited point. "Well then, maybe I have a better use for you three."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Lilith paced the room hurriedly, her heels leaving tracks on the freshly vacuumed carpet. It was almost midnight. They'd kept Sarah sedated and the Fae bound all day in the hopes that there wouldn't be any more interruptions. Sarah was currently locked in a room on the fourth floor and the Fae was in the boiler room. Lilith was feeling uncharacteristically nervous. She was usually never nervous. Not even when she broke the rules was she nervous. There was something strange about that Fae and her daughter and she wanted to find out.

"Oh calm your pacing," said Natasha who was sitting in an armchair at the other end of the room where she and Lilith were waiting for the others. "At midnight, the Fae will be dead and Sarah shall be one of us. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Of course it's what I wanted," snapped Lilith. "It's just that . . . that Fae bothers me. And I don't want Sarah to cause any more trouble on his behalf."

"Fear not, my dear," Natasha said, calmly. "I've left Tessa with Sarah. She'll talk sense into her."

"I doubt very much that she can," said Lilith. "I've already tried and she didn't listen to me. Me! She didn't listen to her own mother."

"Forgive me for saying so, my love, but you aren't very good at conversation," said Natasha. "Sarah is delicate and you must treat her so. My poor daughter, fear not, she will see reason when she starts to watch herself rot."

Lilith hesitated. "Maybe it was too soon to try and get her to join us."

"Usually it is easiest to recruit when they're in their forties or fifties," said Natasha. "Sarah is only twenty-five. She still has her youth left. Once that fades into nothingness, she'll see reason. Even if we have to keep her locked in that room for another twenty years, she'll see it."

Lilith looked down at the footprints she'd left all over the floor, and then smiled. "Yes. Yes, you're right Mother. I'm going to go and take a look at that Fae."

"Just don't start without the rest of us, dear," said Natasha, turning back to he magazine she was reading. "Try not to damage him too much, we need him fresh."

Lilith nodded and left the room. She walked down to where he was being held, thinking of the past. She didn't like thinking about such things, but sometimes they were unavoidable. She remembered, several years ago, when there was a terrible shortage of the elixir. The Fae were getting smarter and were taking precautions against them. Lilith had emerged from the bath one day and noticed something that had terrified her. She had found a single, silver hair amongst her black locks.

Terrified and furious, she headed for the Other World alone that day. She hid and spotted a young Fae beauty. Oh, how pretty she was. How _young_ she had looked, but it was a lie. She was probably hundreds, _thousands_, of years old. How dare she go on living her life so flawlessly while she and the rest of the Huntresses wrinkled like raisins in the sun? She'd grabbed the girl and forced her back to the True World. Lilith wasn't usually in charge of drawing the elixir from within them. That job was for people with bigger, stronger stomachs than her own. Still, she got as much out of the girl as she could. She'd cut in all sorts of places, seeing where it would come out better. Once she thought she'd got everything from her that she could, Lilith returned to the Other world and dumped the remains there. But then she hadn't shared the elixir with her mother or the rest. That she had kept to herself. She'd taken it all herself. She should have. She'd earned it.

Lilith's mind returned to the present as she opened the door to the boiler room and saw the Fae sitting on the floor. His arms where bound above his head in steel shackles, salt poured in a large circle all around him. Lilith walked over, carefully stepping over the salt and sat down next to him on the ground. His head was bent very low so that his hair obscured his face.

"Hello," said Lilith, kindly. He didn't even look up. "It's good to have you back. We were afraid we'd lost you last time. My daughter is so kind isn't she? To think she saved such a pitiful creature like you when she could have used to you stay young forever."

The Fae still didn't move or look up at her. He remained still and silent. Lilith smiled and leaned closer to him, wanting a good look at his face. When she finally got a decent look at it she smirked.

"My, my, what's wrong?" she asked, sweetly. "You don't look very happy. Did I say something? Did I do something?"

His face was twisted with complete rage. His eyes were shut tight so he wouldn't look at her and his mouth was clenched into a tight line, but his skin was hot with anger and, upon close inspection, he was shaking slightly.

"I did do something, didn't I?" she said, moving even closer. "Let me guess. I've taken something from you, haven't I? Or should I say someone?"

He finally looked up at her. His mismatched eyes showed a look that could kill everyone within a fifty-foot radius of them. Lilith smiled and scotched closer so that her leg brushed his. He moved to pull away in disgust, but she grabbed him and, in one fluid movement, swung her other leg over so that she was sitting on top of his legs.

"Don't try to get away from me," she said, teasingly. "I won't let you get away this time. Besides, you want to see me just as much, I can tell. Let me guess," she said, reaching up and placing her hands on his shoulders. "You've been trying to find me and kill me, haven't you? Because that girl I killed a while back . . . you knew her didn't you? You knew her _very well_ didn't you?"

He just continued to scowl at her, his shaking now more noticeable now that they were in such an intimate position. He was pulling at his steel shackles as if determined to be free of them even if it tore his hands right off his wrists.

"Do you wanna know something?" Lilith asked, sliding closer to his body. "Sometimes, when we drink the elixir, we get these . . . images that run through our minds. These . . . thoughts that aren't our own but the thoughts and memories of our kill. Guess what?" she leaned in closer and brushed the tip of his nose with hers. "I remember you. Your face was one of the thoughts that went through my mind when I drank her blood. I did it all by myself, so I'm the only one who knows you. Isn't that special? Hm, I can't help but wonder . . . if you taste as good as she remembered."

Before he could do anything to stop her, Lilith leaned forward and covered his lips with her own. Mm, it was just like she remembered, or rather her kill had remembered. Would his elixir taste like this? She certainly hoped so. She kept her lips against his as much as she could, even though he tried to twist out of the way, keeping his mouth sealed tight against her lips. Lilith reached up and took hold of his head, keeping it still as she continued to taste him. He stilled, helpless against her but still furious.

Lilith broke away only when she was starting to need air. She pulled back from him and looked at his furious face. "Ah, Jareth," she said. "I've missed you."

Jareth looked up at her, looking shocked and outraged. Lilith giggled at him.

"Did you think you'd get back at me by trying to turn my daughter into some kind of humanitarian?" she said, slightly breathless. "Tee hee, you're a simpleton. If you really wanted back at me you should have killed me. That's the way you do it. Twisted plots only ever end badly, didn't anyone tell you? Look where it got you. You're about to be executed for the sake of our cause and my daughter is safe and sound and shall follow in her mama's footsteps, just as she was meant too. Did you just delude yourself into thinking that you could, oh I don't know, put a stop to us? That's just silly. You're such a silly little Fae, who couldn't do anything decent in his pitiful life. Gee, what a sad thought."

Lilith chuckled playfully. Jareth lowered his eyes for a moment, and then looked back up at her. For the first time since she arrived, a slightly twisted smile curled his lips.

"Still, there's one thing that keeps me sane while being anywhere near you," he whispered. "If I had given in and just killed you when I had the chance, Sarah would never have been born."

Lilith froze, her eyes widening. "What?"

"And a world, any world, without Sarah isn't one worth living in," said Jareth, still smiling. "She figured out what my blood could do and still she refused it. She is ten times the woman you, or any of your fellows, could dream to be. If this is truly to be the day I die, as long as Sarah is happy, I shall go without a fuss. Sarah is, and always has been, worth dying for. The same, sadly, cannot be said for you, Lilith. A murdering, torturing witch who abandons her child and kills out of pure vanity cannot compare to Sarah. The others shall see it. They'll notice. They'll notice how much better Sarah is than you. In fact, now that I think about it, you broke the rules when you killed Yvaine, now didn't you?"

Lilith stared at Jareth, her mind trying to take in what he said then, without warning, her hand flew back on its own.

Smack!

Jareth's head snapped to the side as Lilith's hand slammed into his face. Other than that, however, he didn't move. Lilith stood up and moved off Jareth, carefully to kick him in the ribs as she went.

"Midnight can't come soon enough," said Lilith, furiously, then she slammed the door shut behind her.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah felt groggy and heavy. She tried to open her eyes, but it was almost too hard. She tried again and managed to pry them apart to see herself in an expensive-looking hotel room.

"Oh no, no," Sarah groaned as she remembered what had happened and realized where she must be.

"Hey, you're finally up. It's about time."

Sarah turned around and saw someone she knew sitting near the bed. Sarah gasped. "Trish!?" she gasped. "What are you doing here!?"

"Keeping an eye on you for Natasha," said Trish. "Sorry about this, but we had to keep you knocked out all day. Natasha and Lilith seemed to think it was safer."

"No," Sarah whispered, scooting away from Trish. "You're . . . oh, you're one of _them_! You're a Huntress!"

"Yup," said Trish, without the faintest trace of remorse. "Sorry I couldn't just tell you. I needed to stay under cover."

Sarah thought about this, her head starting to hurt, probably due to the sedatives. First Mel is a Fae, now Trish is a Huntress? But, now that she dwelled on it, Mel was never around when Trish worked, either. She'd only worked in the mornings, while Trish worked in the afternoon. Mel had been avoiding Trish just as much as she'd been avoiding Sarah.

"Is my entire life corrupted by you people!?" Sarah groaned, placing her aching head in her hands.

"No, no," said Trish, laughing. "I promise you, Roxanne, Ernie and that other girl are legit."

_Thank heavens_, Sarah thought. _They don't know about Mel. But then . . .!_

"Jareth!" Sarah demanded. "Where is he? What have you done to him? I swear if you hurt him . . ."

"Who? The Fae?" Trish asked. "Oh please, he's not dead. We're just waiting until midnight before we start the ritual."

"What?!" Sarah glanced over at the clock. It was 11: 25. "What ritual?! What are you gonna do to him?"

"Just exactly what we do with all the rest of them," said Trish. "Normally, it doesn't really matter when we do it but tonight is the full moon and there's another storm brewing. At midnight in this world, that's when the extra hour in the other world takes place. During the stormy full moon, at the thirteenth hour, that's when magic is at its most powerful. That's when the Fae reach their fullest, most divine magical ability. That will make the power of the elixir so much better when we take it from him."

"You can't seriously be going along with this," Sarah insisted. "You're killing people for their blood, Trish! It's disgusting!"

"It's not like they're human," said Trish, shaking her head. "Come on, Sar. We're friends. And Lilith is your mom! You're not gonna pick some stupid little pixie over us, over what we have to offer you! It's not just youth, sweetheart. It's the chance to live the good life! Isn't that nice?"

Sarah stared at Trish in disbelief. "What is the matter with you people?"

"'You people!'" Trish cried. "Sarah, let me tell you something. I'm the youngest one here, you know. I'm only 91 years old. I was uncomfortable at the idea of killing these creatures, but it is worth it. It's not just living forever, it's living together. We stick together as a group. Nobody has any secrets from anybody else. You shouldn't be calling us 'you people' when you were always meant to become one of us. Always! Lilith gave birth to you, and most of the rest of us can't have children anymore. You were always meant to be here, Sarah, baby. Don't you want that? Don't you want a permanent life with the rest of us?"

Sarah looked down, feeling slightly nauseous. Trish came down and sat next to her. "It's okay, sweetie, seriously. Look at me, I'm your best friend. Lilith is your mom. Don't you want to stay with us? We can do anything we want. We always could. And you're gonna give that up for some lousy fairy? Babe, even if you were to hang around with him, you'd just get old and die while he stays young and pretty. You couldn't stand that and you know it. Who could? Come on, Sarah, its safe where we are."

Sarah didn't look at Trish as she spoke. She stayed silent, letting the words sink in. Well, there was a point to it. Sarah would grow old and die while Jareth stayed his glorious, handsome self forever. Sarah looked over at Trish, her eyes burning with tears.

"I . . . won't drink his blood," she said. "I . . . I can't. Not his. Please . . ."

"We have more," said Trish, in a kindly way. "We have some more in stock. Not much, I admit, but if you can't bear to take his, you can have some of what we've got."

Sarah lowered her head and sniffed loudly. "Can I . . . see it?"

"Sure," said Trish, and she took Sarah by the hand. "You'll feel better once you just take it, Sarah, trust me."

Sarah nodded. "I understand, Trish. I'm scared but . . . I'll try."

Trish smiled kindly and walked out of the room with Sarah, a sense of victory about her.

**Ying-Fa: Okay that's it for now. The next one's gonna be _scary_, you have been warned. Thanks a lot so much and please leave your reviews!**


	18. A Sacrifice

**Ying-Fa: Beware, ladies and gentleman, this one's probably my biggest scare yet. Sorry for the wait. I've been doing a lot of extra work lately and I've got weekly reports to write for friggin' school. Nevertheless, I am here. Now, please, do not be timid. Come, come, and read deep into the bosom of my story!**

Trish walked through the halls of the hotel with Sarah following miserably behind her. "It'll get better, trust me," she said. "There's no point in getting so bummed out over a guy Sarah."

"I just wish," Sarah whimpered. "He didn't . . . have to die."

"Men aren't worth that, Sarah," said Trish. "Y'know back before I joined up with Lilith, I was a married woman. It's true. My name was Tessa back then and my husband was everything to me. We didn't have any money or kids so we both worked. We worked and worked, he worked at a factory while I did cleaning services. The work stripped me of my pretty face, y'know. I'd gotten old before I even reached thirty. And do you know what my husband, the love of my life, the very reason I work so hard, did once he figured out I wasn't pretty anymore?"

Sarah shook her head, warily.

"He cheated on me," said Trish, bitterly. "He cheated on me with ten, no joke, _ten_ of my younger, prettier, so-called friends. Then he ran off with one of them, calling me an 'old bag' while he was at it."

Trish then let out a twittering laugh. "You can imagine what he thought when I showed up out of the blue after I'd joined the Huntresses. By then the elixir had restored my youth. He didn't even recognize me. The geezer was a good fifty years old at the time and he tried to hit on me. He was so pathetic. I took joy in watching him wither and die while I stayed young and pretty. I guess it just goes to show you what men are really like."

"I never took you to be so vindictive, Trish," said Sarah.

"It happens," said Trish, shrugging. "Ah, here we are."

Trish took Sarah into a dark room that looked like it had once been a spa room. The old hot tube was covered up and above it was what looked like a very large fish tank. A fish tank that was filled three fourths of the way with white, swirling Fae blood. The tank was surrounded by glaring red lights that you would see in vaults and around priceless artifacts in museums. Also, there were four urns sitting n end tables along the wall.

"This is our little trophy room," said Trish, taking a key out of her pocket. "The urns hold the ashes of Huntresses who have died. Sometimes Faes can get pretty feisty when they put up a fight. These were just too clumsy. But this one here will serve a one-of-a-kind purpose," she pointed to an urn without a lid right next to the tank of blood. "That one is where we're gonna keep . . . well, that's gonna be your buddy's final resting place."

"What?" said Sarah, looking stricken. "I thought you returned Fae to the Underground when . . . well, afterwards."

"Usually we do," said Trish. "But Natasha was _pretty _annoyed when he escaped last time. She doesn't think he gets to go back to the Other World. We'll just keep him here. Lilith seemed to think you'd appreciate that."

Sarah didn't know what made her feel sick the most. Was it the urns, the empty urn where they were going to keep Jareth's ashes once they'd killed him, or the overlarge tank of blood? Everything in this room screamed "WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!" at her so much that it was all she could do to stop herself from clapping her hands over her ears and running out. Trish had slipped the key into a little fuse box on the wall without urns. She turned the key and the red lights vanished from around the tank.

"There you go, Sarah," she said. "You can take some right now, while everyone else is busy with the ritual."

"Sh-shouldn't you be down there too?" Sarah asked, taking very small steps toward the tank.

"Nah, they can start without me," said Trish. "Now that you mention it, I think I'll take just a little bit with you. I can't go too long without my perk-up juice, after all."

Trish pulled two glass goblets out from under the tank and handed one to Sarah. "No need to be nervous. I know it seems wrong at first but once you get into the habit, then you'll feel completely fantastic!"

Sarah looked at her glass, then at the tank. "Y'know," she said softly. "It was always my biggest dream to be just like my mother."

"Well, now you can be," said Trish, dipping her glass into the tank so that it filled up with the swirling white blood. "You joining us is what Lilith's wanted this whole time. It was always has been."

"Yes," said Sarah. "Well, in trying to be just like my mother, I accomplished one thing that I'm really quite proud of."

"And what might that be?" said Trish, not taking her eyes off her glass and swirling the contents like a wine critic.

Quick as she could, Sarah took hold of the empty urn, and swung it around. With an almighty crash, it hit Trish in the back of the head. She gave a small "ah!" of surprise before she fell to the ground and lay still.

"I'm one hell of an actress," said Sarah, tossing the rest of the urn away in disgust.

She then looked down at the spilled blood that had fallen from Trish's goblet. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the bag of salt and formula she'd gotten that morning. She opened it and grabbed a pinch of what was inside. Sarah then bent down and threw it onto the spilled blood then got up and dumped the entire contents of the bag into the tank.

The swirling white substance suddenly began to bubble as if it were being boiled over a stove. It darkened steadily, going from sparkling white to pink then red then a deep, charcoal black. The bubbling stopped after a few minutes, but an occasional bubble still popped sluggishly from the depths of the tank. The Fae blood was useless now, the salt and iron had worked together to make it nothing more than a heap of magic less sludge.

Sarah took a deep, relaxing breath. She'd done it. She'd destroyed the blood, as was her purpose when she left her house that morning. The other night had told her only that she could never have helped her mother. What she was doing was wrong and needed to be stopped. Even if it meant betraying her mother, it had to be done. She cared about Jareth and his world so much that it hurt. She wanted to save him. She wanted to do whatever she could for him. Nothing that stood between them mattered anymore. She needed to help him, she wanted to because . . .

Sarah held her hand up to her heart. She wanted to help Jareth because she loved him. She didn't know when it had happened or what had caused it, all she knew was that it was the truth. She loved Jareth, and she'd help him. He was what mattered now. Whatever stood between them now, she would face. Even if it was her mother, the one person she'd looked up to all her life, she'd stand her ground against her.

Then, suddenly, a loud bell started tolling. Sarah shrieked. It was midnight. The ritual was starting now. Lilith and the rest were going to kill Jareth.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"At last," said Natasha, crying out triumphantly. "The storm has reached us. The Extra Hour has arrived. The time has come for the execution of this Fae. Gather around ladies!"

The Huntresses closed in and formed a circle around Jareth, who was still bound around the wrists and ankles, his mouth gagged. That dreaded chair with the leather straps was back and as of now, Wendy and Joyce were forcing Jareth into it, binding him down tightly with the straps. Jareth did everything he could to fight back. He struggled and lashed out with his bound feet, but to no avail. There was salt everywhere, just like last time, and now there was no way out.

Lilith and Eveline and Natasha were watching as Jareth was secured, their faces triumphant and excited. Jareth knew they were celebrating another well-earned victory and that their reputation for never letting a Fae get away once caught was still untarnished. Once Jareth was in place, Lilith came over and stroked a strand of hair out of his face.

"I'll send Sarah your love for you, shall I?" she asked, darkly. Jareth glared at her with all the hatred he could muster. Lilith laughed and stepped away. They were bringing in the machine that would drain Jareth of his blood. His heart immediately began to pound. Panic was coursing through him quickly as the terrible women started getting things in place. It was over. It was time for him to die.

"The time is at hand," said Natasha. "Come, sisters, let us begin!"

Natasha grabbed a large needle attached to the machine and brought it over toward Jareth's neck. The others watched excitedly as Jareth closed his eyes and breathed in quickly as she brought it up to his skin, right at the vein . . .

BOOM!

The Huntresses screamed and threw themselves out of the way of a speeding spiked ball that came zooming into the room, through the door and crashing into the wall.

"What in the . . . !?" screamed Eveline, who was the first to get to her feet.

After a second, the spiked ball sprouted legs and arms and started hopping about. "Did I hit something?" it said in a squeaky little voice. "Did I? Did I? Yes? No?"

The Huntresses had only three seconds to digest this strange sight before the entire Goblin army came bursting in, brandishing spears and Nipper sticks and all other sorts of weapons they had in their possession. "Charge!" they cried, and they bolted through. The Huntresses panicked and bolted. Natasha and Lilith were the lucky first two to escape, but the others were not so lucky. Within minutes the creatures had taken hold of Joyce, Eveline and Wendy and had them surrounded, pointing their weapons at their throats.

The rest of the goblins not keeping the Huntresses in check were un-strapping Jareth from the chair. "We did it!" cried a goblin when Jareth was finally able to sit up. "We've freed the king!" The army cheered.

"Yes, yes," said Jareth, rubbing his wrists where his bonds had cut into them. "But just how, exactly, did you know I would be here?"

"Lord Cassius came to the Labyrinth and said you were in danger, Your Highness," said one Goblin admiral. "He showed us the way and we all came, Sire."

"Did he?" said Jareth, grinning. "So much for him not getting involved. Still, his timing is impeccable. Where is Cassius?"

"He and the dwarf and the monster and Sir Didymus took off looking for the girl who ate the peach and forgot everything," said an eager goblin, who seemed very pleased to be able to say something.

_Sarah_, Jareth thought. "Very well. I'll go to him. Bind and gag these . . . _monstrous_ women and make sure they can't escape."

"Um, Boss? Boss?" asked a little goblin holding a Nipper Stick.

"Yes?" said Jareth, his eyebrow raised.

The goblin beckoned him down toward him. Jareth knelt down beside the goblin and cupped his hand around his ear so he could hear the goblins whispered suggestion. Once the goblin had said what he wanted, Jareth tapped his chin thoughtfully. Finally he said, "Well . . . for a little bit, I guess."

"YAY!" cried the goblins and they immediately went over to the Huntresses.

"Wait! What's going on!?" cried Joyce as the creatures drew nearer and nearer.

"What did he say? _What did he tell them to do!?_" Wendy cried just before she and the rest were swallowed by the mass of goblins. Jareth would have loved to stick around and watch the fun, but decided that some things were of greater importance. He hurried off out of the room and toward the upper floors of the hotel.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah had to have been running around for at least forty-five minutes. She didn't know where her mother or any of the other Huntresses were holding Jareth. Was he perhaps in the boiler room where she'd found him last time? She moved quickly, panicking. _Let him be alive, let him be alive,_ she kept thinking over and over. _Don't let them have killed him. Please let him be alive!_

Sarah tried to navigate her way through the long, carpeted halls, trying to keep her ears pricked for any sound of noise up ahead and trying to find an elevator or something to tell her where she was. As she ran, Sarah failed to see what was going on around her and tripped over something furry that yelped loudly. Sarah lost control and almost fell to the ground, but was caught by a pair of furry arms.

"Aah!"

"Ack! Back! Back away from Ambrosius, you vile hellion! I shall teach you to . . . !"

"Didymus, wait! It's Sarah!"

"Hoggle?" cried Sarah, as she recognized the voices of her friends. She then looked up into the deceivingly fearsome face of her biggest and kindest friend. "Ludo!" she cried then lowered her eyes to the ground. "Sir Didymus!"

"Oh, My Lady," said Didymus. "I'm so sorry for jumping to conclusions like that. Lord Cassius! We've located her!"

"Ludo save Sawah," said Ludo proudly, setting Sarah gently onto her own feet. Sarah beamed up at him. Ah, it was so very good to see her friends again she thought her heart would burst. Three seconds later, a familiar man came from around a corner and grinned at her.

"Cassius!" Sarah cried at the sight of him.

"Indeed, my good lady," Cassius replied, bowing to her. "Glad we found you when we did."

"Cassius, it's Jareth," said Sarah, suddenly remembering why she felt so anxious and worried. "They have him. They . . ."

"Fear not, fair maiden," said Didymus. "We have the entire goblin army with us. They have already been to look for His Majesty. Odds are that they've already found him."

"Which means all that needs to be done now are getting you both out of here," said Cassius. "That is, of course, if you consent to coming Underground with us for awhile."

"If it means that I'm gonna be able to get out of here, then hell yeah," said Sarah, breathlessly. "Come on, let's . . ."

BAM!

Cassius's whole body jerked and he let out a loud scream of pain. Sarah screamed too as he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. Sarah turned to see Natasha standing by a stairway at the other end of the hall, a rifle in her hands.

"CASSIUS! No!" Sarah screamed. "Leave him alone! Please!"

"Get out of the way now, Sarah, or I shall shoot you too!" Natasha threatened, raising the gun up. "You and those filthy creatures get out of my way now!"

"You'd shoot me?" Sarah asked, darkly, standing somewhat in front of her friends and Cassius's writhing, groaning form. "You'd kill me too?"

"It's full of salt rounds, you stupid girl!" yelled Natasha. "It's not going to kill anyone. I've had enough of you and your insistence on standing in the way of our way of life! How dare you do this, Sarah? How dare you to this to your mother? My daughter!? How dare you do this to _me!?_ To your GRANDMOTHER!?"

"As far as I'm concerned you're not my family," Sarah yelled, harshly. "I don't even know you! I have a family that I love and I have people, and creatures, that I love but I don't have any for you! You're nothing but a cold-blooded killer. As for Mom, well, I'm still working on that."

"Don't let those foul Fae deceive you, Sarah," Natasha insisted, raising the rifle again. "They are wicked creatures, full of lies and deceit. They take pleasure in destroying the lives of people like you and me. They enjoy watching us rot while they stay beautiful for all eternity. Don't be like that, Sarah! Even if you and your pretty Fae downstairs to get out of this, even if you do live 'happily ever after' it won't last long."

Natasha stepped closer, keeping her gun pointed right between Sarah's eyes. "You'll enjoy what beauty and youth you have with him and then you'll start to change. Your vision will fail, as will your memory. Then your appearance will grow worse. Your skin will wrinkle, your teeth will brown, and your hair will turn silver. You'll shrivel and become a crone before the eyes of your Fae lover. He'll stay young and beautiful and you will wrinkle and then . . . you'll die. And he'll simply move onto the next beautiful girl. We offer you an escape from the sad fate of humans, to live forever, surrounded by your friends and your family and _this_ is how you repay us? By throwing in your lot with . . . with . . . _them?_" she pointed dramatically at Hoggle, Ludo, Didymus, and Cassius. "We offer you a life that will never end, beauty that will never fade, youth that will never die, with us, your true family, at your side. Can't you see what the obvious solution is? Why must you fight against us? _Why must you side with the ones who will only make you miserable!?_"

Sarah simply stood there, staring at the mad woman. She could answer her. She knew the answer to that question very well. She knew. She took a single step forward, deaf to the frightened hisses of her friends, and looked Natasha right in the eye.

"Because I love them," she said simply. "And I won't let you take them away from me."

Natasha couldn't have looked less shocked if Sarah's slapped her. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped, her gun lowered as if her hands could no longer support its weight because the feeling had gone from her arms. It took a few seconds to regain control of herself, but once she'd managed it, she raised the gun again and scowled.

"Well, it makes no difference," she said. "Lilith will murder that Fae lover of yours and I shall finish that one behind you and we _will_ drink the elixir and we _will _be young forever . . . and you won't be joining us."

Natasha pointed the gun at Sarah's heart and reached for the trigger. Sarah snapped her eyes shut, bracing herself for the pain, but the sudden sound of a chainsaw cut through the air more effectively than a gunshot would. Sarah opened her eyes just as Natasha turned around. Leatherface had appeared behind Natasha, raising his chainsaw and bringing it down towards her. Natasha screamed like a banshee and raised her rifle again, but the saw cut through it like butter. Natasha screamed again and ran off, past Sarah and her friends, and off along the other hall. The serial killer started to make after her, but he paused and looked down at Cassius.

Cassius was just getting to his feet, massaging his stomach, and grinned at the killer. "Good boy," he said, kindly. "Go ahead, I know you want to. And because you're being such a good boy, I'll let you play with some bad teenage actors once we're done here."

Leatherface jumped up and down, clapping his hands, then ran after Natasha, his chainsaw blaring.

"That . . . was scary," said Hoggle, shivering slightly.

"Good show, Sir . . . er . . . Chainsaw!" cried Didymus, raising his staff in salute. "Show that foul woman what's for!"

Sarah looked around toward the stairs that Natasha had come from. "I've got to go find Jareth," she said, heading for them.

"Well then, come on!" cried Hoggle, gesturing toward the others, but Sarah stopped him.

"No," she said. "I need to face Lilith alone."

"But . . . why?" asked Didymus, looking crestfallen.

"Because that's the way it's done," Sarah replied, simply.

"Well, if that is the way it is done then that is the way you must do it," said Didymus, stoutheartedly. "But . . . should you need us . . ."

"Yes, should you need us . . ." said Hoggle, giving her a weak smile.

"I'll call," said Sarah, smiling fondly at all of them. "Take care of Cassius. Thank you, you guys. It means everything to me."

After one last glance at her friend's three kind faces, she turned and ran down the stairwell.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Jareth turned this way and that. The hotel was enormous and at this rate he'd never find Sarah. He was worried for her, he needed to know if she was alright. He had to find her before Lilith did.

"There you are," said a voice from behind him. It was a female's but it wasn't Sarah.

Jareth turned around quickly and glared at Lilith. She had a hunting knife in her hand and was glaring at him with dire fury. "You won't be getting away," she snarled. "I need it! I need the elixir and you're going to give it to me! I don't care about the others anymore. Your blood is mine and mine alone!"

"It belongs to nobody but me," snarled Jareth. "You happen to be the very last person who has the right to touch me."

Lilith screamed and came at him with the knife. Jareth managed to grab her wrist and hold her firmly away from him. He was stronger than her. He forced her back away with only the strength in his arms, but Lilith's madness was reaching its breaking point.

"Why do you fight?" Lilith cried. "Why don't you just die?"

"Because I have to live," Jareth replied. "I can't die when somebody I care for so deeply is in need of me."

"You can't mean my daughter, can you?" said Lilith. "You are such an idiot. We'll see how much longer you'll love her when she's old and gray. We'll see how much longer you can bear to be tied to a crone. _We'll see how you feel when she dies as all mortals do and you never will!_"

While still keeping a firm hold on Lilith's arms and keeping her knife at bay, Jareth lowered his eyes slightly. "You're wrong," he said, softly.

"YOU'RE WRONG!" screamed Lilith. She brought her foot up and kicked Jareth hard in the stomach. Jareth keeled over in pain, but moved quickly out of the way when Lilith's knife came down yet again. He backed up against a wall while the crazy woman advanced on him. "Everything about you and your kind is wrong! You don't age! You don't die! You don't do anything that we have to put up with all through our lives! Am I the only one who thinks that's wrong!? Am I the only one who can't stand to think of you and your kind living endlessly while I have to die? IT'S NOT FAIR! It's not FAIR that you get to be beautiful forever and I have to die!!"

Jareth looked up at her in disbelief. "Heh," he said softly. "You are indeed the _old_ Sarah's mother. You do resemble how Sarah _used_ to be, but she got to grow, to change, and to be free. But now there's hope in her. She's learned. She's grown. And that will never be you."

"I don't care if I never learn," shrieked Lilith. "I don't want to die! AND IF KILLING YOU IS THE BEST WAY I CAN LIVE, THEN SO BE IT!"

"Mom! NO!"

Lilith's knife came down with a flash of silver. Jareth tried to move out of the way, but he found himself caught between the wall and something else, something soft. He turned his head to see that Sarah was leaning up against him, her hands on his chest and her face against his neck. Her closeness reminded him of lying beside her in her guest room, of holding her to him, of kissing her.

Slowly, he raised his arms to embrace her, but immediately felt something wrong. There was something coming out of Sarah's back that wasn't supposed to be there. There was something else too. Her back was . . . wet. There was something wet on her back, something . . . warm. He pulled her even closer to him and dared to look. The handle of Lilith's knife was protruding from out of Sarah's back and her shirt was covered in a bright red liquid that could only have been . . .

"S-Sarah?" he said gently. "Sarah?"

"Jar . . . eth," she said, quietly. "Jareth, my back . . . really hurts."

"Sarah!"

"I . . . I can't . . . stand . . ."

Sarah's legs gave way and she slumped against him, her breathing ragged and shallow, blood still gushing from the wound in her back. It couldn't be happening. It just couldn't be happening. It wasn't possible, it just wasn't!

"Sarah?" said a third voice. Jareth looked up to see Lilith was backing steadily away, looking horrorstruck. "Sarah? Oh . . . Sarah! No! No, what have I done!?" Lilith then turned and fled the room through the other door. Jareth barely noticed, his whole world was Sarah right now.

"Sarah!" cried Jareth, holding her still tightly to him. He wouldn't believe it, he absolutely refused! She was getting heavier and heavier in his arms. He could barely feel her breath on his neck anymore. It was just like before, only a thousand times worse. Another person was in his arms, another person he loved was . . . he couldn't even think it. But this time it was . . .

"SARAH!"

**Ying-Fa: I warned you. Please, now the sooner you leave me your reviews, the sooner I shall return with the next chapter. Wow, I'm nearing the end of this puppy. I think this might even be the penultimate chapter. Well, thanks again and I review posthaste.**


	19. A Homecoming

**Ying-Fa: Sorry for the wait. This is it, the final chapter. After this, I'm all done! I can't believe it! I'm in total shock, it came so fast. Anyway, please read and express your oppinions. Thank you all so much.**

. . . _Something . . . tastes . . . strange . . ._

"Take it! Take it!"

_Sweet . . . but bitter . . . warm but . . . it chills . . ._

"Come on, Sarah! Take it!"

_. . . That voice . . . I know it . . . I . . . love it. I've always loved that voice._

"Good girl, Sarah. Now take it. Take it all!"

_. . . It sounds . . . strange . . . just like this taste in my mouth._

"Please! Sarah, please! Please just take it. I don't care! I don't!"

_. . . . . Sad. It sounds sad. It tastes sad. The one I love . . . is sad. Please don't be sad. I . . . wanna help you. Please . . . please don't be sad. I'll get you home. You've been away for such a long time. Please, I want to get you home. Everything feels so much better, when you're at home._

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Something started to happen that she couldn't understand. Scenes, visions that she'd never seen before, thoughts that she never had. She saw a group of lovely people looking appraisingly on a young, blond-haired boy who was sitting very still and quiet in a chair that seemed too big for him. The people were talking about his future, planning his life right in front of him, thinking that he wasn't listening, but he heard every word. And he didn't like the majority of what he was hearing.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Suddenly, the boy was now a man, tall and beautiful. He was talking to another man, with slick black hair and a pale face. He liked this man. He wasn't like anybody else that he'd met in the Court before. He lived his own life however he wanted and didn't care whatsoever for the consequences. This man's name was . . . Cassius. His first friend who he felt he could trust. Cassius the master of nightmares and his pretty wife were amongst the most genuine people he'd ever met. He watched with slightly jealous embarrassment as the couple kissed and hugged and called each other by pet names in public. If only he could love so deeply . . .

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

There were other women, all different, all beautiful and all looking at him. He was pleased to have caught the attentions of such lovely ladies. He flirted and joked with them, enjoying their company. One in particular had caught his eye. One that was less fake then the rest of her pretty companions. Little blonde-haired, brown-eyed Yvaine was bowing politely before him. He imitated the gesture and brought her hand to his lips. Somewhere, in a place that wasn't there, the great feeling of jealousy could be felt.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Yvaine was bowing respectfully as she gestured to the two men beside her. The overlarge man that was her father and the reedy, stuck-up looking man who must have been her brother, Yasir. Her father stepped forward and grasped his hand in an almost too-jubilant way. Yasir merely nodded rather curtly. It was clear that he thought his sister could to better than a King of Goblins. He didn't care what Yasir thought though. He couldn't care less what he thought of his station.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

He watched numbly as the workers lowered a box containing Yvaine's body into the ground. He watched in tearless sorrow as they started to bury the box under piles and piles of dirt. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Cassius's hand there. Cassius's eyes were on the buried box, but his hand was firm on his shoulder. He looked over to see Yvaine's sobbing father and her white-faced brother as they watched her burial. Yasir looked up and saw him watching.

"_Look at you!_" Yasir said, his voice dripping with venom. "_Like you haven't a_ _care in the world! Look at you! You're glad she's gone, aren't you? Now you can do whatever you like and not be burdened by her! You're happy aren't you?! YOU'RE HAPPY_!!"

Yasir launched himself at him. Cassius pulled him out of the way and several other men at the funeral were grabbing hold of Yasir, keeping him at bay. Yasir continued to scream in fury, to yell out his hatred.

"_This is all your fault! She's dead and it's your fault! Your heartlessness lead to this! You didn't care for my sister! You'd have gone searching for her far sooner if you actually cared for her! Now you dare come here and pretend to mourn her. You're just happy she's out of your hair! You're glad you needn't put up with her anymore! Look at you! You can't even shed a single tear for her! You can't feel a shred of remorse when she loved you so! Curse you! Curse you and your lack of a heart! CURSE YOU FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO MY SISTER!"_

But he _did_ feel. He felt it so bad that it hurt. If this pain, this aching feeling of loss, wasn't him caring, then what was?

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

There she was. The guilty one. The one who had taken Yvaine and murdered her for nothing more than vanity. She was laughing along with the rest of her evil coven. They were giggling gleefully as if they were not vicious monsters that delighted in death and chaos. The one named Lilith, Yvaine's murderer, was the center of attention during their little discussion. They spoke in happy voices, talking in delight. He flew in closer, but not so close so that they would notice him.

From here he had a good look at Lilith. At once he could tell what they were so excited about. The front of Lilith's gown was protruding, rounded with pregnancy. She was pregnant? Strange, he thought. Normally infertility occurs when a Huntress feasts off Fae blood for too long. Lilith had been drinking blood for ages, so how could she be pregnant? The others seemed so happy for her. They were making plans for the child's future. The child was to be female, apparently, and to become one of the finest Huntresses that ever lived. She would carry on the Huntresses legacy as the second of only two women to be born into this lifestyle.

He looked down at Lilith's delighted, bright face. The face of an expectant mother, yet it still looked cold and evil to him. His eyes then lowered to her pregnancy and an idea occurred to him. An idea that put his heavy, burdened mind spinning into action with cunning, cruel thoughts . . .

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

He watched the little girl from his usual, carefully measured distance as she played with her dog in a park not far from her home. So small and yet the girl already seemed to blossom with an innocent charm. Her black hair and green eyes that she'd inherited from her mother had a different effect on her than it had on Lilith. Her smile lit up her face and her laugh was like music.

Despite the horrible things he had planned with this girl as the key to them all, he couldn't help but feel his heart tug affectionately when he saw her playing like this. He always liked it when she was smiling so happily. She was so very charming. He sometimes wished they could meet under different circumstances, that things could be different, that he could just walk straight up to her and speak to her proudly. But it could not be so . . . could it?

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

He covered his face with his hand, tapping his riding crop against his boot. Urg, why did the goblins have to be so particularly deafening today of all days? The girl was already in the Labyrinth and she now only had nine hours and thirty-one minutes left. Could he really just wait here like this for nine and a half hours longer?! His stomach was all in knots, his limbs trembling with the need to move, his ears ringing with the sounds of the goblin's chaos, and the babe's crying.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"_Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way to the castle beyond the Goblin City . . ._"

She was reciting the lines from the story he'd left her. She didn't know that, if he wished it, they wouldn't really do anything to him. But, curse the world, it _was_ affecting him. It was affecting him terribly. She had made it to the castle within the time he'd given her. But this wasn't how it was supposed to go! She was supposed to fail! She was supposed to stay . . . with him. He needed her to stay. He . . . wanted her to stay.

"_For my will is as strong as yours,_" she went on. _"And my kingdom . . ._"

"_Stop! Wait. Look what I'm offering you . . . your dreams._" Maybe she would stay simply for the sake that he'd give her anything she wanted. He _would_ give her anything. He needed her to stay so badly. He didn't want it to end. He didn't want her . . . to go away. He didn't want her to leave. He didn't want her exposed to her vile mother and turned into a . . .

"_And my kingdom as great,_" she went on, ignoring the crystal in his hand and keeping those green eyes on his.

He felt exasperated. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to get through to her. Not without breaking down and confessing everything to her. Even if he did there was a very, very slim chance she'd hear what he had to say. If only she would just surrender herself to his custody, to his care, then all would be well.

"_I ask for so little,_" he told her, his heart aching. "_Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want._"

For the first time, her eyes left his, lowering to the ground in disbelief and frustration. "_Kingdom as great . . . I can never remember that line!_"

Line? She'd hesitated because she couldn't remember a _line?_ That was all? He was offering her everything she could ever want and yet she hesitated because she didn't know what she was supposed to say? Didn't she know how _real_ this all was? That this was a genuine offer? That she was all he'd ever wanted in all his life? That she was the only thing that had made him feel alive since . . .

"_Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave._"

He couldn't get any clearer than that without spoiling things even worse then they'd already been spoiled. After a second, she looked up at him, her eyes bright. He held out his crystal to her still, begging her, pleading with her . . .

"_You have no power over me._"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

He looked up at her window from a lower branch in the tree in her yard. His owl form was the only one he was safe in now. He couldn't get anywhere near her anymore. She'd had no idea what those words had done to him. Ever since she said them, though they'd had no particular magic, had since made him feel so pathetically powerless. Did she think of him anymore at all?

He lowered his gaze, preparing to fly away again, when something white caught his eye. He looked to see, in a trash can at the side of the house, was a tiny figurine. He recognized it as the little dancer in her music box. He one he'd dressed her up to look like in the crystal dream that they'd shared together during her time in the Labyrinth. As he flew lower to it, he noticed that the rest of the music box was in there as well, in pieces. Was this truly what she'd thought of his attempt to court her? To take the Aboveground reminder of the event and smash it to pieces? His heart becoming even heavier, he took the dancer into his talons and flew back home. Once there, he placed it in a decrepit, wooden box in his treasury which was where, in his heart, it belonged.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

He looked over her, his insides turning over in concern. She'd contracted a very high fever that was refusing to break. He reached out and wiped sweat of her furrowed brow, his heart going out to her. Did she even realize how much she still meant to him? It was as if her refusal to stay had made him want her even more.

Had she noticed his efforts to protect her from those two, sleazy men? First it was that absolute cad at her school who had cornered her and had tried to force a 'yes' response out of her. Well, he certainly wasn't so confident after he'd gotten his fingers smashed, now wasn't he? And then that fat pig of a man who Sarah had tried to seek employment from. That animal had looked at her as if she was something to eat! Appalled, he'd set a small gift on the floor for that monster to trip on. It had been _his_ intention to break the overlarge boar's head open, but he'd managed to catch himself. Then the bowl of puss had blamed Sarah for the event and cast her out. Well, at least she was free of him.

Her eyes opened slightly as he watched her in her fevered sleep. Not wanting to frighten her with his being there, he motioned for her to remain still and then moved to stroke her cheek. Her eyes slid closed again and then he sang softly in her ear. The song he'd created just for her. He wove magic into his words, hoping that they'd help her to become well again. Oh, did she know how much she still meant to him?

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

It was unnerving, having her back. It scared him to have her back so close to him. He knew he'd offended, maybe even hurt her with his cold manner at greeting her, but he couldn't afford her to think that he still cared for her so deeply. She was getting older and the Huntresses would be coming for her soon. He didn't them to know that he still kept so close to her. Odds were it would be the death of him if they did.

Seeing her cry and beg him to help her save her brother had been heartbreaking. He had tried with all his power to keep his face expressionless and pretend that there was still nothing in his heart. Yet here he was, in his treasury, pretending to be looking for something to save the boy. He was standing at a table in the back of the room, out of Sarah's view. There was a small, crystal bottle in front of him and in his free hand was a gold and silver knife.

He pulled off his glove and rolled back his sleeve just a bit. He held the silver blade to his wrist, but hesitated to cut. With one final sigh of hopelessness, he brought the knife down to pierce his skin. At once, his white blood came spilling out of the wound. He dropped the knife quickly and grabbed the bottle, watching it fill with his blood.

"I must be out of my mind," he said once the bottle was full and he'd healed the cut. "Please don't disappoint me, Sarah . . ."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sarah?

Sarah . . . that's right. That was . . . her. That was her name. That man was . . . it was Jareth. _Jareth!_

Sarah opened her eyes. She was so confused and disorientated that she didn't know where she was or what was happening. That strange, bittersweet taste was still in her mouth. She looked around for Jareth, but didn't have to look far. He was laying on the floor next to her, his eyes closed and his face without expression. She reached out to help him, but her hand stopped dead before she could reach him.

Jareth's shirt was pulled down over his shoulder. The knife that had struck her in the back was right next to him covered in red . . . and white blood. Terrified, Sarah looked down at his neck. There was a cut on his throat that didn't seem to be bleeding anymore.

"No," Sarah moaned as realization of what he'd done came to her. She stuck a finger into her mouth and stroked the inside of her cheek. When she pulled it out again, she saw a faint trace of swirling white clinging to her finger. "No! Jareth, you DIDN'T!"

She reached back, trying to feel where the knife had stabbed her. Though the back of her shirt was covered in red blood, there didn't seem to be any wound whatsoever. "No! No, Jareth no!" she cried, falling onto his lifeless form. "You jerk! You JERK! How could you do that!? This . . . this isn't what I wanted. It ISN'T WHAT I WANTED!"

Sarah felt completely helpless. She just fell on him and cried. She cried and cried. After all that work, after all she'd done to defy her mother and what she was doing, she still ended up drinking Fae blood. She was the only one to probably ever drink blood that a Fae gave her willingly. He had been trying to save her but now he'd condemned her. Now _she_ was the one who had to try and find a way to live without _him._ Now _she _had to suffer from losing him. _She _would live with this regret, this pain, forever.

"Jareth!" Sarah sobbed. "Jareth . . ."

Suddenly, Sarah felt fingers brushing her hair soothingly. Hardly daring to believe, Sarah slowly lifted her head and looked down at him. Jareth's mismatched eyes were looking right back up at her, one hand reaching up to stroke her cheek.

"I . . . said," he murmured, with a weak attempt at his arrogant smirk. ". . . don't . . . cry."

Sarah sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Y-you're alive," she said, almost giddy with relief.

Jareth nodded slightly. "I'm sorry . . . I worried you," he said quietly. "It's just . . . the blood loss . . ."

"I get it," said Sarah. "Oh, how on earth could you do that!? Why did you do that? Why did you risk dying like that for me? I'm so not worth it."

"But you are," Jareth insisted. "You truly are. I couldn't have kept living without you. There'd be no point to it. I can't keep living without you . . . and if I lost you forever . . . I would have just killed myself anyway."

"No, don't talk like that," Sarah scolded him. "I mean, even if we can be . . . together . . . I'll just grow old and die. What about that? Would you kill yourself then?"

"I won't have to," said Jareth simply, placing his free hand over the wound in his neck. "You have had . . . the true key to immortality . . . for quite some time now. The one that the Huntresses will probably never have."

"What?" said Sarah, stunned. "I do? How?"

"Everlasting youth may be in our blood," said Jareth. "But everlasting life . . . comes from our hearts."

"Your heart?"

Jareth laughed. "Not the literal, beating organ," he said. "But our figurative hearts. Our love. It is the love of a Fae that will keep you alive and beautiful for as long as forever will permit it. You . . . have had my love for so long, Sarah. All it takes now . . . is for you to return that love."

The hand he had on her cheek reached to the back of her head and pulled her to him until they were just barely not touching. "Say that you love me back, Sarah," he whispered pleadingly. "That's all we need to be together always. That's all I need. Please, say you love me . . . or I'll just die here."

Overcome with emotion, Sarah burst into tears and fell onto his chest again. After a few minutes of refreshing crying, she moved up his body and kissed him full on the lips. He returned it weakly, though eagerly. When they finally broke apart, Sarah mumbled, "Jareth I . . . I wanna go home."

Upon seeing Jareth's puzzled expression, Sarah went on, "I mean _our_ home. You've been away for so long I want to take you home . . . and go with you there."

Jareth's smile returned, only this time it was a smile of pure adoration. "Then let's go home, my Sarah . . . together."

And just like that, they were gone.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

In the early morning hours of that fateful night, the police recovered an anonymous tip over the phone, saying that a group of women who were involved in an embezzlement scam where in the lavish hotel outside of town. When the police arrived, they found the most peculiar sight.

Three women were suspended from the ceiling by their feet, alive but it looked like somebody had let a school of piranhas take several bites out of them. Another woman was found crying in front of a large take filled with what appeared to be tar. Yet another woman had apparently locked herself in an upstairs closet, apparently to protect herself against an assailant with a chainsaw.

It was later discovered that the women were found guilty of taking money out of bank accounts all over the United States and in several other banks around the world. Some of the accounts were as old as the 1930's. As to how they accomplished this, nobody was sure and they all refused to say. They were all serving time for their various crimes.

They all stated that there was one other accomplice, but they were never found. In truth, Lilith had disappeared to a very remote town in the middle of nowhere. She changed everything about herself (again) and hid as well as she could. She didn't go to help her mother and the rest of the Huntresses get out of prison, but nor did she go back to the Underground to continue her routine of staying young.

Every now and then, as her hair began to turn gray and her face became wrinkled and draw, she could still count on one visitor. Her daughter would come once every year for only a couple hours. They would talk about random things and usually Lilith would apologize again for what she'd done. As always, Sarah would forgive her yet again. This continued every day until the day Lilith died. There was a brief funeral that only a couple of neighbors held for her, at which a few people swore they saw a young and beautiful woman in a medieval-looking gown watching, tearfully, from a distance. But none of then saw the tall man with wild hair come up behind her, take her comfortingly into his arms, then disappear into the air.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The Aboveground stars were beautiful tonight. So numerous that even the lights of the city didn't seem to want to obscure their faint light. Still, it was nothing compared to the beauty of the woman lying next to him on the roof of the Fox n' Crow diner.

"Ah, to finally be able to travel to the Aboveground without fear," sighed Mel, cuddling close to her husband. "I'm so pleased that the prisons here use iron. It stops what's left of those foul Huntresses from coming to our world."

"And they are getting quite wrinkly from what I heard," said Cassius, grinning.

"Y'know, I'm proud of you," said Mel, propping up on her elbow to get a good look at him. "You set a goal for yourself and you accomplished it. But it wasn't even a goal for yourself, it was for your friend. I'm so pleased."

Cassius sighed in a playfully exhausted way. "Yes, and it took long enough. Think of all that work we had to do. Creating this diner, selling it to that man who was a friend of Sarah's father, convincing him to hire her so we could keep an eye on her."

"You didn't have to make her intentionally miserable though," said Mel, pouting. "Why did you have to hire that awful fry cook? He kept giving my bottom nasty glances."

"Oh, now, we can't have that," said Cassius, seriously. "We all know what I am the only one who may cast eyes on any part of your body."

Mel laughed and kissed him playfully on the jaw. "I know. Well, you still managed to get them back together, how wonderful."

"Well, he is my friend," said Cassius, turning his attention back to the sky. "I hated seeing him depressed even more than I hated seeing him planning revenge. That girl is the only one who could make him happy again. It would be against my honor as his friend _not _to have tweaked fate just a little bit to ensure that they saw each other again."

Mel sighed and rested her head against his shoulder. "Hm, I wonder what the two of them are doing now."

"Probably the same thing I have planned for you once we get back home," Cassius said, darkly. Mel laughed and kissed him yet again.

"Ah," said Cassius, breaking away just enough so that he could speak. "My pretty little fox."

"My mischievous little crow," said Mel, playfully. "Cassius . . ."

"Meliora . . ."

And thus the two vanished, returning home at last.

**Ying-Fa: Oh . . . em . . . gee. I'm FINISHED! That's all! That's all! I can't believe I'm done already! Yay! But now all I have to look forward to is studying for midterms!? sigh woe is me . . .**

**I feel so grateful! Thank you:**

**Ying and Yang twins, hazlgrnLizzy, American Woman, NeverEndingStory101, lonely 27, Maantje, luvnote4u, Vincent Severus Mycroft, IAMSOAP, Shadowxwolf, kota333, Aysuh, DethRose, ScarlettIvy, Athena's Avatar, HappyMand, Blue Symphony, Princess of the Fae, Aroura Jenkins, Sylistra the Scholar, Ms-Lady-Phoenix, J Luc Pitard, Aakasha, Obi-Wan Jinn, mslady17, drivenintomaddness1, Kaitou Jareth, westerncat, Margravine Green, Grogie 13, themistressmalfoy, an InuHanyou by birth, LadyLuck22, Momo Shiro-chan, Bluejay917, DaRbY-DoO95, myladyswardrobe, Rahpsody, Alexandraya, Miss Cassi, bra4goten, notwritten, FireShifter, vampy proxy, TinkLuvr16, vickster223, Beka, Baratsuki, Dragonsdaughter1, masqueradewitch, AnnoCat, Thornwitch, QueenOfSparrowbeth, 2musicismylife2, CarrieCullen9586, and everyone who put this story or me onto their favorites/alerts lists. This has been Ying-Fa-Dono. Goodnight and good luck.**


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